NWCI attended SAFE Ireland Presidential Dialogue

Published: Thursday, October 20, 2011

The National Women's Council of Ireland had the great pleasure of attending the Safe Ireland presidential dialogue this week "Now Your Talking", the first of a series of national conversations on domestic violence. Mary Davis, Michael D. Higgins, Sean Gallagher and Gay Mitchell attended the event with Miriam O Callaghan chairing plus an excellent turnout from organisations across the country. David Norris and Dana Rosemary Scanlon were in Dublin canvassing and sent their apologies while Martin McGuinness was in Cork but a representative from Sinn Fein attended.

Sharon O Halloran Director of Safe Ireland spoke eloquently on the issues faced daily by their 40 member refuge organisations. In just one day 555 women and 324 children received support from a domestic violence support service in 2010. She highlighted the plight of the women and children who could not be accommodated in a refuge due to the lack of space and highlighted that these same women and children were feeling the brunt of statutory agency policies that were often about saving money at the expense of a person's safety. She said that there had to be leadership and unwavering commitment to this issue and our new President and politicians can provide that leadership.

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