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The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter TD, today published the seventh Annual Report of the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime for the year 2012. The Commission has been disbursing funds since 2005 to organisations engaged in supporting victims of crime.

Launching the report, Minister Shatter said, "The work undertaken by the voluntary sector organisations funded by the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime, is for me the epitome of front-line and community service. The primary focus of hundreds of employees and volunteers in this sector is to support the victims of crime. This can range from giving a simple piece of information or a reassuring word, to helping a victim or family of a victim navigate their way through the court process, to in-depth counselling for someone who is recovering from a major trauma. These organisations provide an invaluable service and I am glad that we had an opportunity to recognise this today."

In 2012, the Commission allocated €1,154,139 to 50 voluntary sector organisations. These provided services and assistance to a total of 15,637 victims of crime. This means that 13% more victims of crime were helped by Commission-funded organisations in 2012 as opposed to 2011. Organisations received funding to provide emotional support, counselling and information to victims of domestic violence, sexual crimes, homicide, child victims, and victims of general crime as well as court accompaniment services and accompaniment to Garda interviews and to Sexual Assault Treatment Units (SATU). These services were provided by 26 full time equivalent employees of the funded organisations in conjunction with almost 500 volunteers.

The Commission also organised and hosted two meetings of the Victims of Crime Consultative Forum in 2012. The Forum takes account of the views of victims through those working and volunteering in the funded groups. The first of these Forum meetings focused on fund-raising and philanthropy while the second looked again at the implementation of the Victims Charter (The Charter is available at

The Commission’s Annual Report, 2012 is available on the Commission's website (