Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, I met a significant number of front-line and community organisations, some of which are already delivering refuge supports for people across the country. The report and the accommodation review published by Tusla clearly highlight the need that exists and the work that has to be done in delivering additional refuge spaces. It identified ten areas of 82 units on which we need to work and deliver immediately. Three of them are in Cork, as the Deputy noted.

The work I am doing now is setting out the funding that is required, the manner in which we are going to do it, how we can change the structures and, in the longer term, how we can introduce a new agency that would have sole responsibility in the delivery of these types of services. At the moment, it is quite fractured across various Departments, including my Department of Justice, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, as well as Tusla. What we intend to do in the coming months and years is to bring that structure so that delivery can be as quick as possible. I will set out clear timeframes and funding when we launch the third national strategy.

Hopefully that will happen in mid-April.

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