There should be at least one bed per county for male victims, the support service Amen said

Men who experience domestic abuse are becoming homeless after fleeing violence because there are no refuge spaces for them, it has been claimed.

Ireland’s only dedicated support service for male domestic abuse victims has called for a minimum of one bed per county for men who need to escape abusive partners.

It comes as the National Women’s Council said it was “completely unacceptable” for Tusla, the child and family agency, to claim it only needed to provide a third of the refuge spaces required under European rules.

Tusla has said it needs to provide one space for every 10,000 adult women. The Istanbul convention, which the government ratified on International Women’s Day last month, said that states should have one refuge space for every 10,000