Ireland's homeless figures are totally underestimated because they do not include thousands of women and children who are staying in emergency refuge accommodation, Safe Ireland has said.

The national organisation, which works with frontline domestic violence services in Ireland, has just published a new report, The State We Are In 2016, which shows that women and children who are victims of domestic abuse are particularly vulnerable when its comes to the current housing crisis.

According to the report, in 2014, 1,658 women and 2,349 children - 4,007 in total - were put up in emergency refuge accommodation.

In addition to this, 4,831 requests for refuge were refused because the accommodation was already full.

Safe Ireland noted that while Government figures showed that 912 families with 1,881 children were in emergency homeless accommodation at the end of February, these figures do not include the majority of people in emergency refuge accommodation.

Furthermore, the report shows that women are staying in refuges for longer than before because of external barriers to housing, such as rising rents, inadequate rent allowance and low/no housing stock.

This means that women cannot move out of emergency refuges as there is nowhere for them to go. As a result, thousands of women and children who need to be accommodated continue to be refused refuge.

"Domestic violence is simply not on the homeless agenda. According to local authority practice, women leaving violent homes are not being considered homeless. They are seen as being out of home, as they have a home, albeit an unsafe, violent one. They are being rendered invisible when it comes to their right to a safe home," explained Safe Ireland CEO, Sharon O'Halloran.

Meanwhile, research carried out as part of this report also suggests that the frequency and severity of abuse that is forcing women to leave their homes could be worse than previously documented.

Interviews with 40 women, which were undertaken for the report, revealed that two in three had experienced physical abuse at least once a week, while one in three experienced physical, emotional or psychological abuse every day.

Half of the women interviewed said that the first time they experienced violence, this had involved a serious threat to their lives, such as attempted strangulation. Safe Ireland insisted that this dispels the myth that violence escalates over time.

"This new evidence is indicating that some women and children may be experiencing violence every day of the year. Yet, when they escape this violence and look for two fundamental rights - access to a safe home and access to a justice system that responds to them seriously - they are being failed abysmally," Ms O'Halloran noted.

Safe Ireland is calling on the new Government to tackle this issue within its first 100 days and to allocate an additional €30 million per year to address gaps in services.

It is also calling for the appointment of a minister to spearhead a response to this issue, including the enactment of legislation that would define domestic violence as a criminal offence.

"Domestic violence is not a crime under Irish law and so it continues to be dealt with - not as a serious offence - but as a lesser matter even though our research tells us that women are being threatened with their lives daily," Ms O'Halloran added.

For more information on Safe Ireland, click here
To see the report, click here