Domestic violence support gets most funding, says report

GROUPS SUPPORTING victims of domestic and sexual violence received over two-thirds of Government funding to help crime victims last year.

The annual report of the Commission for the Victims of the Support of Crime was released yesterday revealing its distribution of over €1 million in funding.

The commission gave priority to the need for services to support victims when they are attending court. Two-thirds of the 45 groups which received funding last year provide court accompaniment services.

The majority of these court support services were to assist victims of domestic violence.

The environment for crime victims has changed rapidly, the report says, pointing to the introduction of legislation introducing victim-centred criminal reforms.

“A culture began to emerge of striking a fairer balance between the rights of the community in general and those of victims of crime in particular on the one hand, and the traditional rights of the accused on the other hand,” the report states.

Two general support and information services for all victims of crime were among the largest individual recipients of funding.

Cork-based group Support After Crime, which provides emotion and practical help to victims of crime, received €90,000. The National Crime Victims Helpline, which is a central contact point for all victims of crime, received €75,000 last year.

CARI was one of two organisations which provides support for children to be funded. It received €80,000 for its counselling service for victims of child sexual abuse and the development of court accompaniment services.

Barnardos provided the other funded service for children. Its counselling service for children bereaved by homicide was awarded €25,000.

Ruhama, which offers services to women trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation, received €70,000 in funding, while Women’s Aid received €56,000 for its work with domestic violence victims.