Expanded refuge service held up due to lack of site

The February meeting of Athlone Moate Municipal District was told this week that the expansion of refuge services for victims of domestic violence is being held up due to the lack of a suitable site in Athlone.

Deirdre Berry, Head of Services at the Athlone-based Esker House Domestic Abuse Support Service, made a direct appeal to elected representatives for support in the bid to secure a site for a new purpose-built refuge centre, and pointed out that the current refuge provision in Athlone is the only such facility for the entire Midlands region.

In response to a question in the Dáil last December, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said 98 refuge units would be delivered “by the end of 2025” in the priority locations identified in the Zero Tolerance Strategy on domestic, sexual and gender based violence (DSGBV), along with a further 19 “additional and ungraded units” by the end of the strategy.

Westmeath has been deemed a priority area for the provision of additional refuge places under the under the new government strategy. The county currently has five family refuge places, and has been earmarked for a total of eight places.

However, Deirdre Berry told this week's municipal district meeting that, while plans for a new purpose-built refuge centre in Athlone are “already down on paper” the lack of a suitable site to build on “is really holding the project up.”

During a presentation to the meeting, Ms Berry outlined the scale of the challenge facing staff in the Esker House centre in dealing with incidents of domestic violence across the Midlands region, and she admitted that the service was forced to “turn away” some women and children who were in need of assistance due to a lack of space.

Despite the fact that Esker House has expanded its service in recent years, and now also has an office at a town centre location in Athlone, where it hosts workshops and other events, the Head of Services at Esker House refuge centre said the service urgently needs a site to enable the building of a new centre.

“The new centre will not just be a refuge centre,” she told councillors. “It will have all the ancillary supports on site, it is a future thinking model and we need everyone to get behind it in order to make it happen.”

Outlining the stark reality of domestic violence in Irish society, Deirdre Berry said “one in every four women” will experience some form of domestic violence, and 265 women and 20 children have been killed in Ireland since 1996. Of these, 171 women were killed in their own homes; 87% were killed by someone known to them, and 55% were killed by “their current or former partner.”

Last year alone, Esker House provided emergency refuge accommodation for 28 women and 41 children, but received 267 request for refuge. They handled 656 helpline calls and supported 54 children in their specialised children and youth service.

“The range of services we provide is very broad, but in order to tackle the issue of domestic violence in our society we need a whole community-wide response, not just refuge places,” said Deirdre Berry, who added that the service is used by a very diverse range of women. “We see everyone from guards to nurses to teachers, so domestic violence can affect anyone.”

She detailed how the centre is planning to embark on a programme of educating the community in how to deal with incidents of domestic and gender based violence as part of a new initiative called 'The Esker Project' which is due to be formally launched on International Women's Day on March 8 next.

The initiative, which is being funded by the Community Innovation Fund of the Department of Justice, aims to create safe spaces for women to access information about domestic violence support services by training up one person in each business or organisation. Once training is fully completed the business will then be awarded a 'Purple Hand' to display in their window or on their website to show women in the community that the business is “a safe place to go” in order to gain information about the supports available.

Cllr Frankie Keena, who serves on the board of Esker House, said the service is “”very ambitious” to be planning for a new build, but he agreed with the strategy and stressed the importance of having “a good structure” in place to respond to the “very clear need for services” to tackle the issue of domestic violence in society. He pledged his full support for efforts to secure a site for the service, as did all the elected representatives on the municipal district.

Cllr Aengus O'Rourke paid tribute to Athlone-based garda Stacey Looby, who has been instrumental in raising awareness of domestic violence by organising a national awareness and fundraising day called “Go Purple” which takes place this year on May 3. “We can never do enough to put an end to domestic violence and we, as councillors, will not be found wanting” Cllr O'Rourke.

Municipal Disrtict Mayor, Cllr Lousie Heavin, said it was “truly stark” to see how how the demand for domestic violence services in the Midlands outstrips supply, and she questioned if eight refuge spaces would go anywhere near meeting that demand.