Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Women's Shelters and Domestic Abuse Refuges: Discussion

Ms Alison Graham:

I will respond to that. There are women throughout the country who cannot stay in their own areas. Ms Marmion may have touched on this earlier. Unfortunately, in recent years it has become increasingly difficult for women to leave their own areas and to go to a refuge in another area because trying to source follow-on accommodation in the new area is impossible as a result of local authority regulations, housing lists etc. We have spoken about the lack of refuge spaces, but the problem then is the lack of accommodation after refuge. Quite often, we in Saoirse find that women are staying longer in what is crisis refuge accommodation because there is no move on for them. They are homeless. They cannot go back to what had been their home for various reasons and then there is no move on. We have come across families going into hotel accommodation from refuge because they have nowhere else to go. It is a widespread problem.

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