James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. Obviously our concern is for the families who reside there and need the service. Clearly, there is a need for the State to provide services of this nature and to do so in a planned and organised fashion. It is very welcome that Respond! as a housing agency does this independently without regard to the State, and it is also very commendable that it has funded it, but we need to have a proper organised handover if it is going to cease to fund it. It is not as if the organisation is bereft of funds, that it is overdrawn in the bank or that its capital is expended and it is extended. This is not the case. Its board is quite entitled to make the decision that, having established and funded this, it feels it is not core to its work and that it would like to cease funding it, but there is an onus on it to sit down and speak to us about how it can be handed over in an orderly fashion to allow the Department and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to determine how best to continue funding to support women and families who have been the subject of domestic violence and abuse and how to transition from the emergency situation, as Respond! has done by providing the service, into a more permanent solution and permanent home, which clearly involves the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government also. It is not my intention that the service should fall between two stools, and I look forward to meeting Respond! to determine putting in place an orderly transition for the funding of this organisation. It is not fair to the families concerned to have them looking at 18 December, the week before Christmas, with the threat of having the roof over their heads removed.

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