Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. The third national strategy he referenced commits to quite a few actions. In particular, I note and welcome that he intends to form a policy on how to keep the survivor in the family home but with their abuser removed, as opposed to the current situation where, in so many unfortunate cases, survivors have no choice but to return to the arms of their abuser after their time in a refuge is up. This is because, among other reasons, our barring order system is grossly inadequate and, in many sad cases, there is absolutely no step-down accommodation available. In addition, their abuser has isolated them from everyone in their life so they have nowhere else to go.

According to Women's Aid, since 1996, 242 women have died violently, 57% of whom were killed by a current or former partner. Some 150 of these women died in their own homes and 18 children died alongside their mothers. Some 61% of the women who died violently in the past 26 years were murdered in their own homes. Will the Government acknowledge the correlation between that fact and the lack of step-down and wraparound supports that it provides? Will it do better?

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