Calls to Childline rise by 25%

Calls to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children’s (ISPCC) Childline service increased by almost 25 per cent last year.

The rise has been blamed on the impact of the recession and a growing awareness of child abuse arising out of the publicity surrounding the publication of the Ryan and Murphy Reports into clerical sex abuse last year.

Childline received 815,708 calls last year but was only able to answer 512,689 of them, an answer rate of 62 per cent.

IPSCC chief executive Ashley Balbirnie said the service was experiencing an "unbelievable" number of calls.

"There is no doubt, particularly in the last six months, that economics have become a bigger issue because that does knock-on," he said. “It has a knock-on effect, not just on material things, in the sense that things are being bought, but the impact that has on the parents’ relationships. A lack of money coming into the house puts stresses on everybody. Children know and feel that.”

There was also an 11 per cent rise in calls relating to abuse and welfare.

The service is funded by private donations and the Childline concert which takes place in December every year is the biggest single fundraiser.

Childline costs approximately €4 million a year to run. A fundraising campaign before Christmas fell short of its €1 million target by €200,000.

Mr Balbirnie said their Christmas fundraising campaign reflected how tough things were for the charity at the moment. “That’s a massive hole for us. If we have to cut costs, we have to cut services. It goes straight through the system like that.”

Now in its 22nd, year, the service more than 200 volunteers in eight centres: Dublin, Drogheda, Cork, Galway, Mayo, Mullingar, Waterford and Limerick.

While there is no shortage of volunteers, money is required to train them, rent premises and employ full-time supervisors, the organisation said.