Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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I thank Ms Bayliss for raising those issues. Sometimes it is easy to not be aware of the structural barriers across Departments. Not too long ago, the West Cork Women Against Domestic Violence Project brought to my attention that it was always the way that when somebody presented as homeless, they would go to the local community welfare officer. With the increase in homelessness cases, that responsibility has now been transferred to the local authority and, therefore, the person has to go to the local authority. For example, where I live in West Cork - and it is the same in many constituencies - there are no busses from many towns to the places these people must present to their community welfare officer. In addition, local authority staff are not used to dealing with those situations. They are not trained and they are not trauma informed, although we cannot expect them to be. There are examples in some counties, for example, Clare, where there are trauma-informed multidisciplinary teams dealing with housing. They have training in this regard to make sure that they are supporting people. One hears stories of people turning up during a very difficult time. They are trying to leave the house. They may have children with them, they may have pets, they may have luggage and they might not have transport and then they are told to find their own emergency accommodation. When they find somewhere, they might be told, “No, actually, that is too expensive”, even though it had been on the list. There are all of these kinds of structural aspects. I thank Ms Bayliss for that information. It is important that the committee hears it.