Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There should be no buck-passing. The guidelines just need to be changed as this is public health we are talking about. These overcrowded conditions were unacceptable from the get-go but now they just simply are not compliant with public health guidelines. Accordingly, these guidelines should be changed.

One of the rather grim facts of the Covid-19 situation is the pretty awful spike in domestic violence and violence against women which has been reported by Women's Aid, the Rape Crisis Centre and other bodies that deal with this. That is an awful vista. In my area, it particularly highlights something that is just unacceptable, namely that we are one of the only counties, if not the only county, that does not have a women's refuge. For those counties which do have refuges, the capacity is not sufficient for the number of people seeking refuge when faced with domestic violence and abuse. Is the Government doing anything about increasing the capacity for women's refuges? At a minimum, should it not be the case that every single local authority area should have at least one women's refuge? We have none in our area and it is a real problem that has now grown worse as a result of Covid-19.

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