Sr. Breege Keenan:

I wish to make one comment around domestic violence. In the case of women who are a certain number of weeks in a domestic violence shelter, if they do not have an up-to-date Irish residence permit card, they cannot go on the social housing list. We have an example of a women who was in a domestic shelter and who ended up in homeless accommodation. She was told she only had three nights to stay. This is all about information and understanding. I told her that they would not throw her out with her three children. She rang me on the first and second nights. On the third day, she rang and said that she had to be out tomorrow and asked what she would do. I said that they would not throw her out. In the background, her little six-year-old were saying "Please, mammy. Please don't cry. Please don't cry." I had to reassure her. I asked her if I could I speak to her little daughter on the phone. I spent a half an hour talking to the three of them together - she has two other children - explaining that the local authority will accommodate her in longer-term homeless accommodation. That is what we are working with because people have not been told exactly what will happen. We are talking about peoples' lives. We are talking about a woman who had suffered quite a lot, as it was, and her children witnessed this. This is what we are trying to follow up. This is about legislation and the rights and entitlements that, as Mr. Neenan said, some people are not aware of. It is a matter of humanity. It is simply saying to the person that he or she will be accommodated for three nights and after that they will get him or her other accommodation to live in.