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	The most dangerous period for women in an abusive relationship is when they leave their partners. So why are hundreds of women who make the decision to seek help being turned away from refuges?</h2>
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	That was the experience of a woman and her three children who presented to Wexford Women&#39;s Refuge on Sunday. It was unable to accommodate them because it&#39;s full. Already this year, it has been unable to accommodate 147 women and children.</p>
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	Despite this, the refuge, which is currently home to four women and four children, is closing its doors on September 1 for 13 weeks because of a funding shortfall.</p>
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	The refuge &ndash; the only one in the county, and serving a population of nearly 150,000 &ndash; is currently desperately trying to relocate these families. As of yesterday, it had been unsuccessful. There is nowhere for them to go.</p>
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	The HSE, in a statement, said there were five other refuges in the region &ndash; Waterford, Kilkenny, Clonmel, Cork and Kerry &ndash; who could accommodate women and children. I contacted all of those refuges yesterday. Four were full, with the refuge in Kerry unwilling to state if places were available. Most have lengthy waiting lists.</p>
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	Cuan Saor refuge in Clonmel was forced to turn away four families on Monday. Amber Women&#39;s Refuge in Kilkenny turned away a woman yesterday.</p>
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	Pauline Dunne, manager of Cuan Lee refuge in Cork, told me she had not been consulted by the HSE and said its plan was not credible.</p>
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	&quot;We are currently housing six women and 11 children and there is a lengthy waiting list for places here. Since the recession started, we have seen a huge increase in the numbers of women who are seeking help,&quot; she said.</p>
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	Even if the refuges weren&#39;t full, the reality is that the vast majority of women who are unable to access support services in their own locality return to their abusive partner.</p>
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	Most will have children in school and habitual residence stipulations apply to many social welfare payments &ndash; so vulnerable women are precluded from moving away.</p>
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	The HSE&#39;s solution is no solution. And it must be aware of this, meaning its ludicrous suggestion that women travel as far away as Kerry to get help is deeply cynical.</p>
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		It&#39;s not just Wexford; domestic violence support services are in crisis all over the country.</p>
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		A report last year found that four out of every five women seeking help from a Dublin refuge, Viva House, were being turned away.</p>
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		In the north-west and midlands, the situation is even worse, with no refuge accommodation available in Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon, Longford, Offaly, Carlow and Laois.</p>
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		In Kildare, a refuge which cost &euro;1m to construct has lain idle for over a year as the HSE cannot provide adequate funding to staff it. In Dundalk, a Women&#39;s Aid refuge, which is currently catering for four families, faces closure because of an imminent 70pc cut to its local authority funding.</p>
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		Last year, women and children could not be accommodated on more than 3,000 occasions because refuges were full. What happened to them? Does anyone know? Does anyone care?</p>
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		According to Women&#39;s Aid, women who contacted them in 2012 had been &quot;kept prisoner in their own homes, spat on, punched, slapped, kicked, held down and strangled, beaten with household items and raped during pregnancy&quot;.</p>
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		How many of the women who suffered this kind of abuse had attempted to find shelter in a refuge only to be turned away? How many, unwilling to take the risk of leaving their violent homes again, have now been condemned to a life as a perennial punch bag?</p>
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		A chronic shortage of refuge places is not the only barrier that faces women trying to leave abusive partners. Under the 2011 housing regulations, women who are joint owners of a home are not deemed to have a housing need unless they are divorced or formally separated &ndash; even if they have fled the home because of violence. This means they cannot be added to housing lists and are unable to get rent supplement.</p>
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		&quot;These women become homeless because of domestic violence but are not deemed eligible for social housing support. They have no route out of a violent situation other than to remain in emergency B&amp;B accommodation. It is not a long-term solution and most cannot do it,&quot; said Niamh Wilson, manager of Domestic Violence Advocacy Service (DVAS).</p>
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		She said DVAS had repeatedly raised this anomaly with the Department of Environment, and had been assured that the legislation was under review, but nothing has happened. Instead, the response of the State has been inaction and incessant rationalisations of already inadequate services, abandoning women to a daily hell of beatings, rape and abuse.<br />
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		<a href="http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/colette-browne-hundreds-of-irish-women-are-being-abandoned-to-a-living-hell-by-state-29497233.html">http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/colette-browne-hundreds-of-irish-women-are-being-abandoned-to-a-living-hell-by-state-29497233.html</a><br />
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