A warning that the next item references sensitive topics that some listeners may find upsetting including domestic violence, coercive control and suicide.

This week here on Lunchtime Live we’ve been discussing barring orders, protection orders and safety orders – the rulings available to victims of domestic violence here in Ireland. On Tuesday, we spoke to Donna, who bravely talked about her experience in trying to obtain a safety order against her former partner.

Donna never obtained her safety order. Yesterday we spoke to SiSi, an organisation which supports women who are survivors of intimate partner abuse about whether these orders are fit for purpose, but to get a better sense of how they’re given out, and why in some cases they aren’t, we sent Newstalk Reporter Sarah Madden down to the family courts to observe the system as it works.

Sarah joins Andrea to discuss what she found.