Dermot Ahern publishes the Fifth Annual Report of the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Dermot Ahern, T.D., today published the fifth annual report of the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime for the year 2009. The Commission has been disbursing funds since 2005 to organisations engaged in supporting victims of crime.

In 2009, €1,254,279 was allocated to 42 voluntary organisations. These voluntary bodies provided services and assistance to 9,640 victims of crime. Commission funding includes support for the Crime Victims Helpline - 1850 211407 - as a central point of contact for all victims of crime. Other funded organisations provide court accompaniment services, emotional support, counselling and information to victims of domestic violence, sexual crimes, homicide, child victims and victims of general crime.

The first two meetings of the Consultative Forum for Victims of Crime were organised and hosted by the Commission in 2009. The Forum, which is attended by representatives of each of the voluntary organisations funded by the Commission, was established to facilitate the Commission in taking account of the views of victims of crime in its promotion and development of services for them and to allow victims of crime to have an input into the policy-making process.

The Commission continued to meet with the criminal justice agencies and voluntary groups working with victims of crime in order to improve co-operation and understanding between them and to improve co-operation between the voluntary sector groups themselves, with a view to improving the experience of victims in the criminal justice system.

The Commission's 2009 Annual Report is available on the Commission's website - www.csvc.ie 

27 May 2010

Note for Editors 

The Commission's website provides useful information and links on the services available to victims of crime, broken down by county and by type of service offered.

The Commission members are: Mr. Ray McAndrew, Chairman (former Assistant Commissioner of An Garda Síochána)
Mr. P.J. Fitzpatrick (former Chief Executive of the Courts Service)
Mr. Sean Lowry (former Head of the Probation Service)
Ms. Nora Owen (former Minister for Justice)
Mr. Michael Whelan (Gemini Consulting)
Mr. Greg Heylin, Director of the Victims of Crime Office (ex-officio)