Ms Fiona Ryan:

Yes. To give the Senator an evidence base, which is a term being used a lot today, Sonas is the biggest provider to women and children experiencing domestic violence in this State. We have more than 100 homes spread across the four local authority areas in Dublin and into Wicklow. We think we can speak pretty authoritatively about this.

Traditionally, we have come from a continuum of care model whereby people would have gone into our refuge and would have progressed through supported housing. They would have stayed with us for two years and moved on into local authority housing or other private rented accommodation. With the reconfiguration of services by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, with the housing collapse and with everything else that has happened, it has had a severe impact on domestic violence services. Put bluntly, our whole national housing policy, which I do not think has a gender reference in it, is "housing first", but in case anyone has not noticed, there is no housing. We are constantly told in terms of policy that housing first is the way to go, but the only choice for people leaving our refuge in Blanchardstown is to go back home with a risk and safety plan. We try to extend our outreach service to cover them because we are committed to a continuum of care. They can try to get a local authority house but the chances of getting one are very slim. I think there are 10,000 people on the waiting list in Fingal County Council. They can present to homeless services and often the only option when they do so is a hotel room with their children. When I say "hotel room", let us not get any ideas about four-star service. We are talking about a very modest standard of accommodation. The other alternative is supported housing such as ours.

However, in the Dublin region, tenants generally go through what is called a common referral process, where needs are assessed. Through a service provider and the local authority, it is decided who goes where. Many domestic violence survivors may have very high domestic violence needs but they may be lower on other thresholds - for example, substance misuse. It is Sonas's position that they are getting squeezed out of the system and that, in effect, what are coming through the common referral process are the very high-end complex cases involving domestic violence, substance misuse and other forms of potential criminality. They are really complex needs.

There is a shortage of local authority provision and there are not enough private landlords. The thrust of things at the moment is that private landlords are the way to go, but they are not there. I hope that helps.