asked the Minister for Health the steps, if any, he intends to take to assist in the establishment of a more comprehensive and less precarious refuge and care service for battered wives and their children.
6.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Refuge and Care.
5.
asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that a need exists for special accommodation to provide immediate refuge and support for victims of family violence; and, if so, what steps the Government intends to take to meet this need.
With the permission of the Ceann Conhairle I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 6 together.
I am very much aware of the problems referred to by the Deputies. I have recently had consultations with a number of organisations who are concerned with this problem and I have arranged a meeting with representatives of Women's Aid to discuss what further steps can be taken to improve existing services throughout the country.
The Eastern Health Board are giving urgent attention to the outstanding problems in the Dublin area and I am hopeful that these problems will soon be resolved.
I would, of course, like to point out that health boards already provide or support the provision of a wide range of services for battered wives and their children. These services will continue to be developed, as required and I will be asking interested parties to submit their ideas to me on the most appropriate way to proceed.
Could the Minister give us any estimate—six months, a year, two years—as to how long these consultations will take? This is very urgent.
I shall be thinking in immediate terms, a matter of weeks or months. I have already seen some of the organisations concerned and I am seeing perhaps the most important one very soon, namely, Women's Aid.
Does the Minister envisage the provision of a crisis centre in each health board area as a solution to this problem?
I have indicated to some of the people involved that, whereas the aspect of the problem which impinges most on public attention is the particular situation in Dublin, I feel it is a problem we shall have to deal with on a national level and so I am asking those concerned to put forward proposals for a national scheme.
Does the Minister intend to discuss this problem with his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, with a view to introducing a scheme which would make it possible for long-term residents of such shelters to be housed by local authorities?
That is one possible approach but in the Dublin situation we are primarily concerned with the immediate accommodation problem and I think we will have that solved very soon. As the Deputy knows, to use a cliché, this is only the tip of the iceberg because the problem goes much deeper than merely accommodating wives and children and I would hope that the fundamental causes of the problem could be tackled on some broader basis. Apart from the Deputy's suggestion about local authority housing, there will always be a need for some refuge to which people can have access in certain circumstances. Another factor that must be taken into account is that very often wives and children can go back to the family homes after a period of time and, therefore, what we are really concerned with is a temporary refuge where these people can find succour and support.
Like Deputy Browne, I too appreciate the Minister's concern. The problem in the Harcourt Street shelter has become intolerable because of the number of long-term residents who are unlikely to go back to their own homes and who do not qualify for local authority dwellings because their spouses are already tenants of these local authority houses. I am asking the Minister to consult urgently with his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, to see if the problem can be alleviated, if not solved.
I shall certainly do that. It is an aspect that will have to be taken into consideration in any overall examination. Under legislation passed last year a wife can get an exclusion order from the home against a husband but I am afraid that has not worked very satisfactorily as yet. Whether it is that people do not know this can be or there is some defect in the legislation I do not know.
The Government will have to bring in a law permitting divorce, I am afraid.