A Dublin woman who set up a domestic abuse support group is calling on the government to create a court to help victims.
Clondalkin woman Priscilla Grainger and her daughter Ainie are the founders of Stop Domestic Abuse in Ireland, which they set up in 2014 after suffering years of abuse themselves. Now, they run the support group to help others in similar situations.
This week, Priscilla is calling on the government to set up a court just for victims of domestic abuse which she believes will make a huge difference to women and their families. Speaking to Dublin Live, Priscilla said: "We really need to have our own court for victims of domestic violence, we need it to protect victims from their abusers.
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"Victims should not have to go into any court house and have their abuser eyeball them. There should be a separate area, there should be a separate meeting room where victims are looked after where they can get counselling but most definitely we need our own court where we know victims are going to be looked after even as far as when you are leaving with your barring order it must be served immediately, not two days later or two weeks later."
In addition, Priscilla is also calling for more training for criminal and solicitors who may not necessarily have the experience of domestic abuse cases and for legal aid to be reviewed. She said: "There are criminal solicitors and they don't have the experience of family law, I would even go to the family law solicitors and barristers who are really experienced in it that we have at the moment.
"The big issue is the payment for anybody for legal aid is so low, that needs to be re-looked and reviewed, even besides that the most important thing I want to see happen is that victims have their own identity like if the abuser breaches the order you don't have to wait three years for it to go to court.
"That's what is happening at the moment, you could be waiting up to three years to get into the court and that's not good enough. It should be done on the day you break the order."
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, you can contact Stop Domestic Violence Ireland's Facebook page here or ring 0868697022.
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