Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree with the Deputy. As she knows, responsibility is moving out of my Department and will be fully a matter for the Minister for Justice in the coming months.

With regard to the ongoing focus, we need to increase the number of refugee places. There is no doubt that a refuge is vital in addressing emergency needs when a woman or family is fleeing a life-or-death situation. However, we also need to include in our discussion the concept of safe houses as a medium-term solution for many families, but perhaps not requiring resources to the extent mentioned by the Deputy. The Deputy referred to the cost, which is €100,000 per space. It is a cost we absolutely must pay but, with regard to having a step-down facility to allow families to move back into a slightly more community-based setting, we need to include safe houses into our understanding of the accommodation we need to provide as we continue to address these issues.

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