Ms Caroline O'Reilly:

The Deputy spoke about prison. That client group I work with would echo what she probably heard from that group of women. It is a serious crisis for women on the streets in particular. The hostels are not safe. They are mixed gender. If somebody is leaving prison and has had a period in there where they have become detoxed, somewhat stable or accessed some form or treatment or support, they may be ready to access something else. However, when they are leaving the prison system back into that hostel system, they can forget it. The bottom line is that there is no hope. I am currently piloting cocaine and crack health-led approach programmes within the south inner city in the Dóchas Centre. What has emerged from those groups is that they are terrified at the prospect of leaving. When they are preparing to leave and literally walking out the door, they really do not know what is ahead of them and it is bleak.

They can go left or they can go right, if they are lucky enough to have a support worker from Tus Nua, or a similar organisation, to meet them at the gate, to bring them to their service, to get their first payments and so on, which is not really realistic across the board. If they are lucky enough to have that, there is some kind of hope but again, it is just really difficult to avoid. There needs to be a reinforcement of services within organisations like Tus Nua which has, for example, a drug-free house. We need more of that. We need more safe housing or more halfway homes for women and men leaving prison who are ready to access treatment. That can help people to move on and reduce the rate of recidivism in the system. It is so costly and we really need to divert money elsewhere, that is, into systems that will work, have longer-term health effects and give us more bang for our buck. It is only fair to people because it reduces levels of trauma for women out on the street. The sexual violence that happens and the trading for drugs that goes on is a sad reality and it is happening in broad daylight. It is not that anybody wants to do it but it is happening. We need to really examine this.