WOMEN’S AID ARE holding what they’re calling a ‘Dáil action’ outside Leinster House today to highlight domestic violence against women.

There are dozens of pairs of women’s and children’s shoes on display along with candles and white cards noting victims’ ages.

The shoes represent 78 women murdered by their partners or ex-partners since 1996, as well as the 10 children who have also been victims of domestic violence.

“We talk about statistics a lot of the time and when you talk about statistics they’re numbers so they’re not people in a sense,” Linda Smith, Women’s Aid’s national freephone helpline manager, told TheJournal.ie this morning.

“It is a harrowing issue but it’s the harsh reality in terms of what must we do as a society, from a government perspective, from statutory perspective. What are we going to do to protect these women going forward?”

Women’s Aid is calling on the government to implement the recommendations contained in a recent Oireachtas Justice Committee report on sexual and domestic violence.

Among those recommendations are that women and other victims of domestic violence have access to protection orders 24/7 if they feel they are in danger.

Smith also said that a recent Garda Inspectorate report highlighting garda failures in dealing with domestic violent incidents was not surprising for her or her organisation.

She said: “We hear this on our helpline a lot from women who have called the guards and we hear about the inadequate responses. I want to note that there are guards who do their job and treat domestic violence incident as a crime. They investigate and they take a complaint.

“But there is a lot of women out there who will be very relieved when they see that report because this is happening. [There's] a gap in the system, it’s a failure in the system so realistically there has to be accountability in terms of good practice and how guards across the board should be responding because we’re talking about the lives of women and children.”