Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

Last week, South Dublin County Council passed a People Before Profit motion to allocate long-term housing to victims of gender-based violence leaving short-term refuges. Official figures show that 32 households fleeing domestic violence were forced into emergency accommodation from January to March. However, according to service providers this massively understates the problem. The housing crisis means women either cannot leave abusive relationships or are forced to return to them once their time in a refuge is up.

I spoke to a woman a few weeks ago whose time in the short-term refuge was over. She was in an absolute panic because moving into emergency accommodation meant moving outside of her support networks. Both Housing for All and the zero tolerance strategy on gender-based violence focus on short-term refuges but nothing is being done to provide long-term secure social housing for victims of domestic violence. Does the Taoiseach accept that additional long-term social housing needs to be provided?

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