THE mother of a woman who was murdered by her husband has said the survival of the courts' victim support service is essential to help grieving families during trials.

Marie Gough – whose daughter Mary Whelan was strangled in 2001 – said her family could never have coped with the criminal process had it not been for the volunteer service.

Its future, however, remains in doubt following a standoff between its newly established management structure and the volunteers themselves.

Those who work with families during trials refuted any suggestion they withdrew services and have demanded a meet­ing to discuss the scheme's future.

In an interview with the Sunday Tribune, Gough insisted her family could not have handled the murder trial of Colin Whelan without the service's help and said she still phoned it for support five years later.

Whelan staged his own suicide by parking his car in Howth, Co Dublin, before moving to Spain where he worked as a barman. He was eventually located, put on trial and convicted of his wife's murder. The trial judge said it was the most callous and calculating murder he had ever encountered.

Gough said the trial was very difficult but made much easier thanks to the support of volunteers.

"I am just an ordinary person and we need these type of people that can help us," she said. "It's okay if you have money and you can pay for things, but for ordinary people it's great to have someone that you can just go to."

In 2005, she said the service showed her around the court buildings before the trial, explaining how everything worked and performing even simple functions like securing seats.

"I met victims who had no victim support and they said they were lost and they couldn't even find a seat; they had to stand outside," she said.

"The first meeting I went to there was a group of us and there was a counseller and she asked every one of us how we felt. It would have been very different [without them]; we would have felt lost."

The group of volunteers met last week and drafted a letter to the board of the Courts Support Service (CSS) demanding a meeting to address concerns.

They centre around the imposition of a professional coordinator and the cancellation of a €35 daily tax-free allowance following intervention from the Revenue Commissioners.

"We actually should be made employees. We would be happy with €50 a day and we would pay our own tax," said spokeswoman Breda Hammond.

The CSS board said it has only suspended the service while it restructured the system. A limited service remains in place.