Ms Aoife Bairéad:

To the Senator's point on domestic violence but also coming back to ours, this is why funding has to be offered locally in response to the communities themselves. I have a good example of what the Senator is asking about. This is not to dismiss the woman's experience but we had a man in our services who was seeking help for what he perceived as growing violence in himself towards his family. Groupwork was not possible because of a language barrier. Trying to find specific services and therapies for him took a lot of adapting on our part. That is so hard to do within the limitations of the budget. National approaches say that groupwork, drug-specific services or domestic violence-specific services are the answer but while all of those are necessary, the ability to move somebody like that man through services or help services to work alongside each other is the only way to find solutions. It is similar for any women who find themselves in that position. The more factors that are in play, the more difficult it is. I am a social worker as my day job so this takes up a lot of my working life. Although we talk about women in particular and especially parents, for anybody who is experiencing violence, the more factors that are at play and the more vulnerable that person is, the harder it is to leave and the harder it is to stay gone.

There could be children including young children, housing difficulties, poverty, drug use or mental health issues. Lots of women trying to access domestic violence services have all of those factors at play. We have to be able to support them in holistic ways if they are going to be protected.