Mr. John Church:

Due to the nature of our service, we often have engagements with children during a violence event. We are almost like the emergency department of child services in the middle of the night. For all the reasons Ms Keane outlined, Covid led to a pressure cooker situation in which not only were children unable to leave the home but the alcoholic or perpetrator also could not leave. There was a major issue in that regard. As to how it manifested in terms of children contacting us, there was a fear before and after incidents of violence as well as anxiety at certain times of the day because they knew their father or mother was going to start consuming alcohol, get violent and abusive and take it out on them. A lot of support, including supports for our volunteers, was needed to deal with those issues.

I referred in my opening address to our online services. The 24-hour web chat facility and visits to our website saw a really significant increase because children did not want to be overheard. That is our hypothesis anyway. It makes perfect sense that if the perpetrator heard the child making a telephone call, he or she would be subject to the sort of abuse that was the reason for making contact.