Women's Aid is reporting the highest numbers of domestic abuse in its 50-year-history.
The charity's annual report for 2023 shows 40,048 disclosures of abuse against women and children - an 18% increase on 2022.
The disclosures of abuse last year included emotional abuse, physical violence, sexual abuse, and economic control.
Many of these combined to constitute 'coercive control' which is now a criminal offence in Ireland.
There was an alarming increase in both physical violence, which was up 74% and economic abuse which saw an increase of 87%.
Women's Aid CEO, Sarah Benson, says the figures are appalling, however, it's just the tip of the iceberg.
" We are seeing increased levels of physical abuse. We have over 7,800 disclosures of physical abuse, nearly 22,000 of different forms of emotional abuse, over 4,200 experiences of economic abuse, and 1,448 of sexual abuse, as well as 4, 478 disclosures of abuse of children".
The organisation's also launching a report into 11 publicly reported cases of coercive control convictions through the courts - revealing the devastating scale and harm of the offence, and raising questions about current maximum sentencing provisions.
