I thank the Minister for coming to the House for this motion on the Adjournment. My concern is the sum of £500,000 that has been allocated to locally based womens' groups. Because of a specific allocation of £20,000 in the budget to Women's Aid, Dublin, I was afraid the impression might be given that funding for refugees and rape crisis centres would come from yet another allocation. What I wanted to bring to the attention of the various groups throughout the country — not just Limerick — is that within the £.5 million there would be funding for their organisations so that they would not feel that because Women's Aid was given £20,000 no funds would be forthcoming for them. Nobody was disappointed that the Dublin group got the £20,000 allocation. Women operate these centres and depend on local funding they do not crib if a Dublin based group fets funding while a provincial group does not. Over the past number of budgets certain rape crisis centres have received greater funding than others. They are all concerned with the same problems so they do not criticise this fact but it is important that moneys should be given also to Limerick and distributed throughout the country.
My reason for mentioning the Limerick ADAPT House is that it has been six years in operation. It is established now as a major centre for women and children who have suffered domestic violence and it is the only such centre in the mid-west region. It serves the area of Limerick city and county, Tipperary and Clare which are all part of the Mid-Western Health Board area. Notwithstanding the fact that they service the mid-west, the actual admissions, when we break them down, extend from Dublin across to Galway, down to Cork and into Kerry. There are people in the centre even from England. On an annual basis at least 132 families on average are admitted to the refuge at ADAPT House.
Like all these groups the allocation from the budget would be essential for their survival. The figure before me for ADAPT House is £75,000 of which approximately £28,000 can be obtained from the Mid-Western Health Board to go towards salaries. The remainder of up to £50,000 has to be raised through voluntary fund raising. This increases every year. What I am asking for is a specific allocation to the centre. It is not only battered wives, people whose marriages have broken down, etc., who come to the centre and have to be worked with, but there is also the increasing problem of the trauma experienced by children who have been sexually abused. This year, if ADAPT House is to be able to help these children, they need to be in a financial position to employ two qualified child care workers who will have to work on a 1:2 basis with those children. This is an extra dimension to Adapt House.
ADAPT House receives funding at present for one salaried social worker who is the only full-time social worker in the country associated with refuges. There is a caretaker, an administrator, a day-time housekeeper, a night-time house mother and caretaker, a receptionist and secretary, but they are all part-time workers. The centre is open to victims of family violence at all times of the day and night. Women and children may stay there for periods ranging from days to months and while in the house they not only get refuge but benefit from services such as counselling, legal aid, housing assistance, welfare payments, medical aid. They are given every help and support to recover from their experiences and, of course, social workers and qualified childcare workers are necessary to help build up the confidence of the women and children in their care so that they can resume normal living as quickly as possible.
Approximately 132 families stay in the centre each year; some attend for information, advice and counselling. Approximately 1,000 bed nights are provided each year and demand is increasing. Women come with problems related to physical violence, to marital incompatability or mental cruelty, to alcoholism, psychiatric problems, homelessness, gambling and, of course, to financial problems. Of the cases dealt with, 45 per cent go home to an unchanged situation, 30 per cent undergo organised counselling, others go home following a barring order and 9 per cent set up home away from their husbands. The diversity of cases is evident.
I want to make a strong case for this refuge because they are outside the Pale, a factor that has been addressed in other matters today. There is the feeling that those who cry loudest can sometimes be centred in Dublin. There is only joy that the women's aid refuge in Dublin received funding but there is a need to state that centres like ADAPT House do tremendous work. For many, long stays in institutions are not desirable but there are occasions when it is not possible for families to leave ADAPT House within the accepted time limit, which is approximately 12 weeks. They no longer need the full security of the refuge or the input from staff but no other accommodation is available. The biggest demand at the moment, outside of the salaries for the two childcare workers that they need to employ, is for half-way housing. Four flats have been fitted out basically to help those families in a transition period so that they will be fully rehabilated eventually. What is necessary is equipment for those flats where women share a communal kitchen. Children who have suffered sexual abuse are presenting themselves in growing numbers and they require an almost one-to-one care. Therefore, I am appealing to the Minister, as one who listened very carefully last year to the Women's Rights Committee, to tell us his plans for the £500,000 allocation to various groups throughout the country. I know he will listen very carefully and ensure that ADAPT House, and similar refuges throughout the country, will receive funding from the £500,000. That is not to say that other groups seeking support for women's centres throughout the country such as community-based groups, both rural and urban, should not get their fair share, but it is essential that a caring institution like ADAPT House — if "institution" is not the wrong word for an alternative — be facilitated to ensure that a rehabilitation service catering for almost the whole of the west would be financially secure. Voluntary workers should feel that there is support for them in 1991.
