Increase in reports to gardai of domestic incidents in Dundalk

Domestic abuse incidents in Dundalk have increased so far this year compared to the same period in 2020, new garda figures have revealed.

There were 52 domestic incidents reported to gardai in Dundalk last month compared to 38 last January, which is an increase of 20%, according to crime statistics for the Dundalk Garda District.

The number of domestic incidents with no offences disclosed was 49 since the new year, compared to 36 in January 2020, an increase of 33%.

Inspector Liam Archibald told the Dundalk Joint Policing Committee that the increase in domestic violence incidents was contributed to by the lockdown.

“This is consistent with national figures, with the increase of domestic incidents reported to gardai due to people being at home”, he said.

Gardai in Dundalk also received six formal notifications from The Child and Family Agency (TUSLA) last month, a decrease of 21% from nine referrals for the same period in 2020, according to the recent garda statistics.

Gardai made 40 formal notifications to TUSLA this January compared to 28 for the same period last year, which is an increase of 31%.

Local councillor Maria Doyle, speaking at the meeting which took place on zoom, said the increase in domestic incidents were a concern.

“Since we are only talking about a month it would seem there are significant numbers of domestic incidents reported to gardai and there has been an increase on last year which is a concern.

“It has been highlighted locally and nationally that Covid and the lockdown have exacerbated some of these difficulties and created an increase of domestic incidences.”

Cllr Doyle enquired about the call backs gardai are doing in relation to domestic incidents, in particular, where no offence is disclosed.

She also raised the issue that as schools are closed teachers are not in the position to make representations to TUSLA and pointed out that gardai must be taking that up as the notifications have increased.

Inspector Archibald in response said: “Our call backs in relation to domestic incidents is around the 90% to 95% mark.

“We aim for 100% every time but don’t always get there for a number of reasons such as people might not be in the house when we call.

“Our policy is strict in that we must do our call back 24 hours after the incident was reported to gardai and before 72 hours has elapsed, so we have a 48-hour window to do our call back.

“We do one call back at least and if other call backs are required it will happen.

 “We are getting calls to domestic incidents during the day when there are kids at home who would normally be at school.

“The increase of domestic incidents and the increase in notifications to TUSLA do go hand in hand.”