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	The number of court orders made to bar individuals from the family home has fallen by 38 per cent in eight years, new figures show.</p>
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	The number of safety orders to prohibit people from engaging in violence or threatening behaviour has risen by some 55 per cent in the same period.</p>
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	When publishing District Court figures for domestic violence-related applications and orders from 2007 to 2014, the Courts Service noted the number of applications for barring orders had fallen by a fifth during that period.</p>
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	Barring orders require the respondent to leave the family home and stay away from the person applying for it and/or any dependent children. It may also include terms prohibiting the respondent from using or threatening to use violence.</p>
<p>
	Some 2,671 applications for barring orders were made in 2014, 2.5 per cent down on the previous year. But the number of people actually barred from their homes for domestic violence reasons last year was 25 per cent down on 2013.</p>
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	A total of 877 people had barring orders made against them in 2014 compared with 1,167 the year before.</p>
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	There was a significant rise in the number of applications for safety orders over the eight years from 2007. The total number of applications has risen by 55 per cent, from 3,553 to 5,499 last year.</p>
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	Safety orders prohibit the person against whom the order is made from engaging in violence or threats of violence, but they do not oblige the person to leave the family home.</p>
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	Interim barring orders</p>
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	There was little change in the eight-year period in the number of applications for interim, or temporary, barring orders. There were 586 such applications in 2007 and 570 last year.</p>
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	There was an increase of 16 per cent in the number of applications for protection orders (temporary safety orders) over the eight-year period.</p>
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	Women&rsquo;s Aid, which provides a national support service for women dealing with domestic violence, had some 13,655 contacts to its national freephone helpline and its one-to-one support services in Dublin last year.</p>
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	The organisation&rsquo;s director Margaret Martin said she was not surprised at the strong increase in applications for protection and safety orders, as eligibility for these orders was extended in August 2011 to couples with a child in common.</p>
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	Lobbied</p>
<p>
	Women&rsquo;s Aid had lobbied for almost a decade to secure this extension as approximately 10 per cent of callers to its helpline were women not living with their partner but who had a child in common.</p>
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	&ldquo;Equally the drop in barring orders is unsurprising as many women report how difficult it is to get a barring order especially where there has not been recent physical violence,&rdquo; Ms Martin said.</p>
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	&ldquo;Many abusive partners are aware of this and instead use emotional, financial and sexual abuse to control and undermine their partners.</p>
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	&ldquo;Where a barring order application is unsuccessful it is likely that a safety order would be granted, which would add to the increase in the number of safety orders. In addition, with the current housing crisis, some women do not want to see their partners homeless despite the abuse and instead apply for a safety order.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Women&rsquo;s Aid said in June it was coming to terms with an &ldquo;unexpected and significant&rdquo; 20 per cent cut to its statutory funding by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, at a time when it was planning to extend the national freephone helpline from January 2016.</p>
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	The helpline is available on 1800 341 900 and operates from 10am to 10pm every day of the year except Christmas Day.</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/number-of-barring-orders-falls-by-38-in-eight-years-1.2315276">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/number-of-barring-orders-falls-by-38-in-eight-years-1.2315276</a></p>
