Last month, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration published its report on supports and experiences of victims of crime. The recommendations included one that several experts, including us, called for during their hearings: establishing ‘a national organisation responsible for providing universal victim support services.

It may (or may not) surprise you to learn that this does not already exist.

Gaps in support and coordination

The European Union’s Victims’ Rights Directive provides a right to access victim support services. However, governments are free to decide how comprehensively to do so.

Ireland, like many European countries, developed victims’ services in an incremental, piecemeal way. We have national organisations that support some types of victims, or work at certain stages of the legal process. Cuan, established to fund specialist services for people experiencing sexual and domestic abuse, will no doubt improve coordination in that sector.

But many victims fall through the cracks. If you experience burglary, theft, assault, fraud, property damage, or many other common crimes, there is no obvious route to in-person, ongoing support. The Crime Victims Helpline provides information and a listening ear, but their figures suggest that most people don’t know they exist. Like the whole sector, they operate on a shoestring: a few staff run a service for which the latent demand is likely orders of magnitude greater than its capacity.

Indeed, while we welcome the additional funding announced for Cuan, Budget 2027 is otherwise silent on funding for the victim support sector.

There is also no overarching body responsible for coordinating victim support. Consequently, we lack resources dedicated to strengthening cooperation between justice, health, social and victim services, identifying gaps in provision, and promoting evidence-based policy.

The role of Gardaí

Under Irish law, as in many EU countries, primary responsibly for assessing victims and providing information lies with Gardaí. This may appear sensible, given that Gardaí often speak with victims anyway (if crimes are reported and investigated – only 30 per cent of personal crime victims report it).

However, an EU assessment found that this places a burden on police officers for which they are ill-equipped. They lack the time to give ongoing support, the training to undertake effective needs assessments, and the connections to help victims navigate other services. Victim support might also conflict with other policing duties, including crime investigation and public protection.

A Garda survey, published last year, found that just 34 per cent of victims ‘were provided with details of victim support services/helplines’ in 2024 – the same proportion as in 2023. Research on victims’ right to information about state compensation and restorative justice implies that victims seldom receive full information about them.

While policing processes can always improve, expecting the Gardaí to do everything always leads to unsatisfactory outcomes. The same is true for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Courts Service and judiciary, and other professionals that make up the criminal legal process. As the Justice Committee heard again last month victims often feel let down by these bodies. But their role is to identify who is guilty and how to punish them. No-one is responsible for prioritising victims and focusing on their needs. We need a clear starting point for every victim to ensure that nobody is forgotten and everybody can access tailored, ongoing support.

How would ‘Victim Support Ireland’ help?

At the core of a comprehensive victim support system is a single body that provides ‘general’ and ‘universal’ support – available to every victim, irrespective of the crime, where they live and if they reported it.

They offer triage services: trained experts assess victims’ needs by phone or in person, depending on their preference. If the assessment identifies that other support is needed, they can connect victims with the many specialist victim services, or health and social services. They give victims information about their rights and how to navigate the legal process, including reporting, legal protections, court hearings and what happens during and after sentencing.

Several countries have this. Victim Support Sweden can help every victim, irrespective of whether the offence is reported. They provide ‘end-to-end’ guidance and support – before, during and after court – and assistance contacting psychological, housing and financial support services. Victim Support Netherlands works similarly. Dutch legal frameworks and policing systems permit them to contact victims who do not opt out, removing the burden from victims to find information themselves and request referral. This means that victims do not experience further harm because of delays in accessing support or information. For serious offences, Victim Support Netherlands makes contact within two working days.

In Northern Ireland, too, legislation takes the burden away from victims to find out about and seek a referral to victim support. They have separate, national support services for adults and children, and a Commissioner for Victims of Crime to support good practice and review system efficacy.

Ireland’s closest thing to a general, universal service, the Crime Victims Helpline supported 5,902 people in 2025. Victim Support Netherlands helped 281,769 victims in 2025, serving a population around four times our size. Sweden’s population is around twice ours, but Victim Support Sweden helped 61,482 victims in 2024. In 2024/25, Victim Support Northern Ireland, serving a population around one-third that in the South, received 46,549 referrals.

These figures do not reflect significant differences in the prevalence of crime in each country, but in the funding victim support receives, the presence of systems to ensure services are accessible, and the capacity of services. The sad implication is that many more people would access support in Ireland if it were resourced and accessible, rather than neglected and supressed.

New thinking and priorities are urgently needed

Almost every day, we see new stories of victims’ dissatisfaction with criminal justice. Figures from 2021 suggest that just 37 per cent of victims had confidence in the justice system’s effectiveness.

This is not an exclusively Irish problem. Most countries exclude victims from the response to their experience and have cultures that position justice primarily as a function of punishment severity. But research is clear that how people are treated is more important than the legal outcomes. The longer we assume that tinkering with sentencing is the best and only way to help victims, the more opportunities we miss to place victims’ needs at the centre of what achieving justice means.

How do we create one clear pathway where every victim has somewhere to go, and nobody is left behind? The Committee Report highlights the gaps, how to fill them and the urgency of doing so.

Perhaps most strikingly, it is indicative of the high level of unity and concern among victim support organisations. We must listen to victim services and fund comprehensive victim support.

This article originally appeared in the 3 November edition of the Irish Examiner

Dr. Ian Marder is Associate Professor in Criminology at Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology, in which capacity he writes, and Chair of Victim Support at Court. 

Ruth Maxwell is a Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal Consultant and Irish Representative for Victim Support Europe’s Victims’ Advocates Platform.