Marriage counselling centres short of funds

Waiting lists for marriage and child counselling services are growing, and at least one organisation has had to turn couples away because of a lack of funds. Almost 250 divorce applications have been lodged to the Circuit and High Courts and 64 divorces have been granted since the introduction of divorce.

"We're poised to expand and there is a fierce demand for our services," said the chief executive of Marriage and Relationship Counselling Services (MRCS), Ms Ruth Barror. "We're turning people way because we don't have the personnel and we don't want to keep people on a waiting list for too long."

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform advertised yesterday for applications for grants for child and marriage counselling projects. Responsibility for the services is to be transferred to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs.

Ms Barror said couples have to wait up to three months for counselling. "It's horrific when an appointment date for a couple finally arrives and they say `it's too late'."

The MRCS, a non-denominational service, sees around 400 couples a year and receives a £77,000 grant out of the £900,000 allocated to all marriage and child counselling services. Two years ago, the organisation set up Teen Between, a counselling service for the children of couples with difficulties.

The organisation is starved of funding for expanding, especially in the area of child counselling, Ms Barror said.

"They said when divorce was coming in that there would be a comprehensive counselling service available for couples and their children. But we still haven't got our second cheque for this year."

A spokeswoman for Accord, the Catholic marriage counselling service, said its waiting lists were up to four weeks in urban areas. Accord received £158,000 in state funding and also receives funding from the church. The organisation is starting a pilot child counselling project next month.

State funding for counselling organisations was set up under the former Department of Equality and Law Reform in 1994 with an initial allocation of £750,000.

This was divided between 54 organisations. Last year, the scheme was extended to cover the counselling of children whose parents had separated.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform said the amount of funding for next year had not been decided. "There is a commitment there but we can't say how much because we just haven't got to that stage."