Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Some Departments have five or six different roles. This one went to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Hopefully, we will have it soon.

No other items of correspondence have been flagged for consideration today.

The next item is the work programme. Next week, on 3 February, we will engage with Transport Infrastructure Ireland to examine its 2020 financial statements. On 10 February, we are scheduled to examine expenditure on the national broadband plan with NBI and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. As agreed last week, we have a series of housing-related meetings scheduled after that with the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government, the Residential Tenancies Board and Home Building Finance Ireland. The secretariat is working to make the necessary arrangements which would take us up to 3 March.

With regard to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, an issue that has arisen is the provision of women's refuges, and, unfortunately, it has become more pressing in the past fortnight for the wrong reasons. There are nine counties without a refuge and it is causing big problems. Perhaps we could add it in and take it as a small item in one of those meetings. We could address that with the Department regarding what is being spent on it, what money it has and what plans there are for the future. Nine counties, including Laois and Offaly, do not have a premises. Women and children are being sent miles away from schools, doctors, support groups and families, with no transport and nothing. That is along with the trauma of being out of the family home and in many cases being victims of domestic violence. One can imagine the extra layer of difficulty. I have dealt with too many of them, unfortunately, over the years. Does Deputy Hourigan wish to come in on that?