Ms Fiona Ryan:

The work that we do is not just responsive and reacting to emergencies, although that is part of it. We also do significant prevention work. Domestic violence services are doing significant prevention work in the context of stopping women, children and families from entering homeless services by providing, with Tús and An Garda Síochána, those supports around domestic violence orders that allow families to stay safely in their homes. The committee needs to be aware of the preventative work that domestic violence services do, as well as the emergency response.

At present, An Garda Síochána is looking at a standardised risk assessment tool for victims of domestic violence. In the UK it is called the domestic abuse, stalking and harassment and honour-based violence risk assessment tool or DASH. It is used by both NGOs and British police forces. SONAS would use DASH, which is a way of assessing how much someone is at risk. I cannot see any reason why, once we have that standardised tool, there cannot be co-operation in the future between housing authorities and An Garda Síochána - as well as multi-agency work to provide that safeguard and wraparound for women and children at high risk of domestic violence and homelessness - to find an appropriate accommodation response that will ensure their safety.