Martin Kenny
Question:71. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Justice if she will report on the roll-out of additional domestic violence refuge spaces. [16639/22]
View answerTuesday, 29 March 2022
Questions (71)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
I request a report from the Minister on the roll-out of additional domestic violence refuge spaces throughout the country. It is some time now since Ashling Murphy, unfortunately, was killed. That was a significant time in Ireland when people re-examined and looked again at this issue of violence against women everywhere throughout the country and in all its aspects, both in the home and in public spaces. We have to do everything we can to prevent violence against women but we also have to provide services for people who, unfortunately, are in danger or at risk. I know the Minister has taken on responsibility for that role and I would like to gain an understanding of how much progress she has made. There are no domestic violence refuges at the moment in the county I live in or the surrounding counties.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is my goal that everyone who needs a refuge space will get one. It is an ambitious one but I am deeply committed to working with everyone in this Chamber, our partners in the sector and my Government colleagues to try to achieve that. We have prioritised tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in all of its forms, ensuring people, particularly women and vulnerable people, feel safe and are safe in our communities. That means ensuring we address this issue in a number of ways, and providing refuges and accommodation is a very important element of that work.
As the Deputy is aware and has mentioned, I am currently leading work on a new whole-of-government strategy to combat domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. This new plan will have a particular focus and emphasis on prevention and ensuring victims are better supported. It is my intention to publish the final strategy and accompanying action plan as soon as possible in the coming weeks.
The Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and I also commissioned an independent audit of how responsibility for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is segmented across Government. On foot of this, it has been agreed that my Department will assume that responsibility, as the Deputy has mentioned, for services for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence as well as the policy responsibility and overall cross-departmental or Government co-ordination of implementation. A detailed plan setting out how this will work is in preparation and will be outlined as part of the strategy launch.
On the specific issue of refuge spaces, in February, the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and I published the review by Tusla. We set out in Tusla's report the focus on the accommodation for victims of domestic violence. It highlighted the gaps that exist in the coverage, the inadequate provision of services for safe accommodation, including refuges, and what we need to do to meet that population need. It recommended an approach to address this with the immediate, medium and long-term action required and it has a list of priority areas where additional services would address much of the most immediate initial need.
While the review says a minimum of between 50 and 60 new refuge places are needed as a priority, we did a further analysis and identified 82 refuge spaces where this would have the most impact if prioritised, that is, additional to the spaces set out in the report but also including a number of other areas. I have asked my Department, in addition to those areas, to include as part of that a number of other counties, including the county represented by the Deputy. I will return to the Deputy with a further response as to where we are at in this work.
I thank the Minister very much for her response. We understand this is an issue that is not just about the spaces, the bed and the roof over a person's head, or a family in many cases. It is more than just a woman who has to find refuge because it is often also her children. It is also about the services around them and ensuring there is both adequate space for them to recover from the trauma they have gone through and somewhere for them to move on to. There is all of that together with issues for local authorities and housing, Tusla and social services. It is an across-the-board issue.
We are also dealing with another issue. I have been on the phone already today talking about people coming from Ukraine and trying to find spaces for them because they are also in an emergency situation. We also have people in Ireland who are homeless and we have a homelessness crisis. We have all of these factors bearing down on us but we cannot, at the same time, lose sight of the issue in question because it is one that affects so many people every day.
I did not get from the Minister an indication of what progress has been made. I understand what plans have been made and that the review has been done. I also know the needs are being identified, but what concrete progress has been made to provide spaces and services?
I set out in my initial answer to highlight, as the Deputy has said, how complex the area is and that it is not just about refuge spaces. There are many other elements to it and the strategy is a very significant part of that. I appreciate the accommodation piece is very significant. I assure the Deputy and others that while we are dealing with a great crisis in Ukraine, we are certainly not taking our eyes off this. It is a very significant priority for me and will continue to be so.
The locations we have identified, from the 82 to the additional counties, have been chosen on the basis of required proximity to a refuge as well as the need for the spaces per head of population. They represent areas where there is the most significant underprovision.
We now have a high-level interdepartmental group looking at the current system for the provision of refuge spaces and identifying the changes that can be made to the system to try to deliver the additional spaces in the short term, which is the 82 plus the initial counties. It is also looking at the lifetime of the next strategy, which will be in a number of years and beyond that, which will be more like a ten-year plan, and which will bring us to the Istanbul Convention.
My intention is that the timelines for delivery of these places would be set out in those three phases. They will be outlined in the third national strategy, and the detail as to how that is going to be done will be set out in the strategy. The progress we are making will all become clear when we publish the strategy in a matter of weeks. We are doing this work through the interdepartmental group that is bringing together my Department, Tusla, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We have already engaged with a number of groups that are developing new plans themselves and we are trying to iron out where the problems are and how we can improve the overall system and process. We have had a number of meetings and it is going very well.
I appreciate what the Minister has said, that the strategy will be published in a matter of weeks, but we still do not know how to provide, for instance, for a woman who may be in crisis in County Leitrim tonight who has no service in that county or in any of the counties around her. That is the reality today. Is the State proposing to build or buy or look at existing Government-owned facilities that can be renovated or used to provide refuge spaces? What is the plan to provide those spaces and the services around them? I know the Minister has mentioned spaces that may be adjacent to existing services. That is all well and good, but there are no services at all in some counties. That is a key problem that needs to be examined.
This is a very significant problem in the larger urban areas in particular. As we know, accommodation is practically non-existent and many of the voluntary organisations that have done so much in this regard - charities, basically, that go out rattling a bucket to get a few bob to do it - depend on finding bed and breakfast accommodation. They cannot get these facilities any more because they are gone. We have another crisis that has overshadowed all of that, so that needs to be recognised.
We are looking at everything and we have an opportunity essentially to start from scratch, but taking on board the fantastic work that has already been done by so many community and voluntary groups and organisations. Working with Tusla, we have an opportunity to look at the structure and system, see where it works and where it does not, how we can improve it, where we need to step in as a Government, how we do that, and how we ensure we have it done in a planned way so that, when we are developing new refuge accommodation, we have all the ancillary supports and resources people need and the spaces are fit for purpose. Many of the refuges are in old buildings that are not necessarily built for this purpose.
We have to look at how we can improve and expand on the existing refuge accommodation but also how we start from scratch. A great deal of work has been done in many counties and areas by councils, community groups, local representatives and many others. We will link in with those people and groups through this interdepartmental group to see how we get this process moving again. I appreciate people want to know immediately what it is going to look like in each area, especially where there is no accommodation at the moment, and that will be made clear in a matter of weeks.
What is also important is that we will have funding allocated, not just for this year but beyond that. We need to ensure that funding because it is going to take a number of years to build this accommodation. The Tusla report set out three years for the initial 56 spaces, which we are now expanding to 82, with additional counties being covered. A great deal of work is in train and I reassure the Deputy that this is a priority.