The Women's Aid helpline answers more than 40 calls every day.

The organisation is today launching a 24 hour helpline - it says its offering a lifeline to thousands of women who live under threat of violence.

From today Women's Aid will run a helpline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The helpline had previously been manned for just 12 hours a day.

In the first six months of going 24/7, the organisation answered almost 2,000 calls in the 'out of hours' night service.

It costs 75,000 euro to run the line and the organisation is calling on government to foot the bill for a vital support for women who live under the threat of violence in their home.

Last week Women's Aid' revealed it has seen a spike in calls since last weeks murder suicide in Cavan - its also seen an increase of one third in contacts to the website

In 2015, women disclosed 970 occasions when an abusive partner threatened to kill them, their children and their families. There were 579 additional disclosures of assaults with weapons, threats with weapons and being strangled and smothered.