Madam, - Last Tuesday Frank Fahey, Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, launched another awareness campaign which purports to deal with domestic violence but, in fact, deals only with violence against women.
Yet again the Department of Justice and Equality has excluded male victims and given a helpline number for female victims only.
In his speech at the launch, Mr Fahey acknowledged that men can also be victims but he continued by referring to domestic violence as if it consisted only of violence against women. For instance, he said he had taken some time to familiarise himself with some of the issues "in relation to violence against women to date" and that he had only just begun to learn about "the complexities of violence against women".
It would appear that the Minister has no interest in learning about the issues in relation to, and the complexities of, violence against men.
The television campaign which the Minister was launching refers to a national helpline number operated by Women's Aid. As the name implies, this has always been a service exclusively for women and when men have contacted it in the past, they have been advised accordingly.- Yours, etc.,
MARY T CLEARY, Amen, Navan, Co Meath.