Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the reply. She mentioned the increased funding, which is welcome. In the case of Laois, a location has been identified and the council is very much on board, both the elected members and the council management. It is important that we try to move that on. We have an excellent service in the county, the Laois Domestic Abuse Service. The level of funding for these services is very important. Unfortunately, and I say this carefully, there is a huge demand for their services. I wish it were otherwise and I know the organisations and the Minister wish that too. The causes and the source of this issue need to be tackled as well. I ask the Minister to emphasise to other Government Ministers that it is important in the upcoming budget that domestic violence and abuse services are well funded. They run on a very low budget and while they do great work and have very dedicated staff, it is important that we fund them.

The Department official will be part of the team in the cases of Laois and Offaly.

I ask the Minister to convey to her officials a sense of urgency in respect of this matter. We are working on it at local level. It is a priority for Sinn Féin, as I hope it is for everybody else, to get the services in place. I ask that the departmental officials, in their dealings with the county council and the local domestic abuse services, try to get things moving as quickly as possible to ensure the bricks and mortar are put in place. The Minister is correct that we need services to go with the buildings. However, it is the bricks-and-mortar part that is holding things up at this point.

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