At an EU presidency conference held in Dublin Castle this morning, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, voiced support for the organisations' campaign and stressed the need to have "legislation in place . . . to deal with all of the forms of violence against women."
However, a number of women's groups criticised the Government in advance of the conference for imposing a virtual funding cap on the sector and warned many service providers to sufferers of abuse are reaching a crisis point.
Ms Fiona Neary of the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland said NGOs have not received any "additional funding for the last two years and that means we can't advertise our services to those people who need them"
She added that many organisations are already stretched to the limit and would not be able to cope with any increase in demand for support services.
Ms Lydia La Riviere Zijdel, the president of the European Women's Lobby, said: "We need a legal tool, effective at a European-wide level to strengthen our capacity to protect women and hold all perpetrators to account."
However, according to the chairwoman of the National Women's Council of Ireland, Ms Mary Kelly, it's likely the establishment of such an EU directive could take as long as five to ten years.
The conference continues tomorrow and will focus on rape and sexual assault, domestic violence, prostitution, trafficking and pornography.