Tusla, the Child and Family Agency allocates funding for a network of 60 organisations that provide services to victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Ireland. This includes 20 services that provide some 145 family units of emergency refuge accommodation to women and children.
Tearmann Domestic Violence service which is based in Monaghan town provides support, information and court accompaniment services to women experiencing domestic violence. It also provides an outreach service in County Cavan. In 2015, the Tearmann Domestic Violence service provided services to 251 women, approximately half of whom were from County Monaghan and half from County Cavan.
There are no women's refuges at present in Counties Cavan and Monaghan. However, Tearmann Support Service refers women who need emergency accommodation to women’s refuge centres in Navan, Dundalk and Drogheda. The capacity of these units to provide emergency accommodation is as follows:
Location of women’s refuge
|
Capacity: Units of emergency accommodation provided
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Navan
|
5
|
Dundalk
|
5
|
Drogheda
|
11
|
Tusla has no immediate plans to develop additional refuges in the North East. However, Tusla is engaging with service provider organisations and other stakeholders to identify and prioritise future needs, including the provision of additional emergency accommodation spaces nationally. Since the beginning of 2016, six additional units of emergency accommodation have become operational and are supported by Tusla.
At all times my priority, and that of Tusla, is to ensure that the needs of women and children fleeing domestic violence are being met in the best way possible.