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

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is my goal that everyone who needs a refuge space will get one. It is an ambitious one but I am deeply committed to working with everyone in this Chamber, our partners in the sector and my Government colleagues to try to achieve that. We have prioritised tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in all of its forms, ensuring people, particularly women and vulnerable people, feel safe and are safe in our communities. That means ensuring we address this issue in a number of ways, and providing refuges and accommodation is a very important element of that work.

As the Deputy is aware and has mentioned, I am currently leading work on a new whole-of-government strategy to combat domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. This new plan will have a particular focus and emphasis on prevention and ensuring victims are better supported. It is my intention to publish the final strategy and accompanying action plan as soon as possible in the coming weeks.

The Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and I also commissioned an independent audit of how responsibility for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is segmented across Government. On foot of this, it has been agreed that my Department will assume that responsibility, as the Deputy has mentioned, for services for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence as well as the policy responsibility and overall cross-departmental or Government co-ordination of implementation. A detailed plan setting out how this will work is in preparation and will be outlined as part of the strategy launch.

On the specific issue of refuge spaces, in February, the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and I published the review by Tusla. We set out in Tusla's report the focus on the accommodation for victims of domestic violence. It highlighted the gaps that exist in the coverage, the inadequate provision of services for safe accommodation, including refuges, and what we need to do to meet that population need. It recommended an approach to address this with the immediate, medium and the long-term action required and it has a list of priority areas where additional services would address much of the most immediate initial need.

While the review says a minimum of between 50 and 60 new refuge places are needed as a priority, we did a further analysis and identified 82 refuge spaces where this would have the most impact if prioritised, that is, additional to the spaces set out in the report but also including a number of other areas. I have asked my Department, in addition to those areas, to include as part of that a number of other counties, including the county represented by the Deputy. I will return to the Deputy with a further response as to where we are at in this work.

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