Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am certainly not laughing. In 2011, when Fianna Fáil left office after a number of years in power, the figure for those who were homeless stood at 98,000. The current figure of 89,000 remains unacceptably high but at least it is going down. The word self-congratulatory was in respect of Senator Hayden. I do not know any other Senator who has spent so much of her time and professional life working with people who are homeless and trying to improve services for them. The Senator is involved with Focus Ireland and of all people in this Chamber she has spent more time with and knows more about the homeless. She is certainly not engaged in self-congratulation and nor is she seeking praise from anybody. I am of the view, therefore, that Senator Ó Domhnaill's remarks were well and truly out of order. I will not ask him to withdraw them because I doubt he would do so.

I welcome the many things which the Minister of State is trying to achieve. Trying to cope with homelessness is always an enormous issue for any Government. Homeless people are always with us despite our best efforts. Some of the efforts the Minister of State is making are welcome. In that context, the ring-fencing of €45 million in funding last year and this year and the investment in capital spend are both welcome. Trinity College Dublin produced a report on young people aged between 18 and 25, their specific needs when they become homeless and the very particular interventions that are required in respect of them. I am the Minister of State read this very timely study with interest when it was published last year and perhaps she might comment on its contents.

The Minister of State might expect me, not surprisingly, to refer to a particular category of homeless people who should not forgotten. I refer to the victims of domestic violence. She is aware of my interest in this matter because we have discussed it on previous occasions and I know she is giving some attention to it. I remind the House that the reason this particular group of women is important is because its members enter homelessness at a time of crisis. Statistics show that probably one quarter of women who are homeless first became so as a result of domestic violence. Those women then remained homeless.

That constitutes a large number of the women involved.

This issue is twofold. It is the emergency crisis for those women and the fact that they fall into long-term homelessness. The Minister of State knows that these women who flee their homes are not classed as homeless because if they have a share in the property or the land, they are deemed ineligible for housing support. This is somewhat of a contradiction. The local authority cannot declare them eligible for housing support and the executive officer who tries to intervene must declare the woman in question ineligible for rent supplement. They cannot be on the housing list so they cannot get help at the most vulnerable time for them. Many of them are in a very difficult situation where they must seek the assistance of strangers. It may have taken great courage for them to have left their homes, possibly with their children who are very vulnerable. Through a nonsensical situation that has arisen, and I do not think it arose on purpose, and a lack of common sense, these women fall into a terrible gap. They may be lucky and have a strong advocate. Certainly, I would speak on behalf of the domestic violence advocacy service in Sligo which works very hard on behalf of such women and may persist in talking with the executive officer on their behalf. Sometimes, it may get the rent supplement that is required but it takes an enormous effort and amount of energy and puts an enormous stress on those women and their children at a time when they do not need to bear such stress. They may have a safe house or refuge of some kind but, again, the Minister of State is aware there are not enough places. The international figures show that we should have 644 such refuge places but we have only 143.

In all conscience, we cannot ignore this group. SAFE Ireland, various legal professionals and academics have asked repeatedly for a change in Irish law to remedy this situation in order that in the Minister of State's review, about which she may be able to give me an indication, we may find a way that prevents the crisis experienced by this very small group of women - they are small in the overall scheme of the figures about which we are talking - from continuing beyond the moment they leave their home with their children and look for assistance. There should be some category put aside in order that these women are classed as homeless in a crisis, which would assist them in their time of crisis and prevent them from becoming homeless in the long term.