Reports of domestic violence in Tipperary up by 60% over the last five years

Last Friday, May 17, the Tipperary Joint Policing Committee (JPC) met for what is likely to be the final time under its current iteration.

Although plans for progressing the program under a new format are well underway, the final meeting of this current series was spent largely discussing the serious topics of domestic abuse and the associated threats of drug use here in County Tipperary.

Detective Inspector David Finnerty began the discussion by noting some stark figures from the year so far: “Nationally in 2023 there were 55,000 domestic abuse cases with in excess of 1,000 domestic abuse calls on a weekly basis and a member of an Garda Siochana dealing with a call relating to domestic abuse on an average of every 10 minutes.”

“In Tipperary alone, 2024 domestic violence figures for the year so far show that there have been 342 cases reported, this is up from 333 for the same period last year and up 128 from 214 reported cases for the same period in 2020.”

He says: “I want to be clear that these figures represent just those incidents that are reported to us.
“It is unfortunately the case that there are roughly 30 cases of domestic violence before a victim will get in touch with gardaí or one of our external partners.”

In an effort to further increase efforts to combat domestic abuse, two detective sergeants, nine detective garda and three specialist victim interviewers that have now been placed in dedicated roles to help tackle this issue here in Tipperary. The newly appointed officers will be based in the government building, on Rosanna Road in Tipperary town. Each of the newly appointed officers has undergone specialist training in the area of sexual based crime, with a focus on the area of coercive control.

Incidents will be managed on a case by case basis where a Superintendent or Inspector will firstly review the incident and any related reports as well as any previous incidents.

Further actions will be identified from here and depending on the nature of the incident, the gardaí will liaise with the necessary departments as well as external agencies such as Tusla, Ascend or Cuan Saor.

Inspector Finnerty finished: “I would like to urge the public that if you are a victim of domestic violence or know someone who is, please speak to us about it. There are many ways we can handle the situation and you do not have to stay suffering.”