John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator McHugh for sharing his time and I thank the Leader of the House for arranging the debate. Most points have already been covered. Senator McHugh is correct in noting that there are not great differences between Members as far as this issue is concerned. I wish to reiterate an issue raised by Senator McCarthy, namely, the role of local authorities with regard to housing difficulties in which people in domestically violent situations find themselves. I encountered a situation fairly recently in Kilkenny whereby a woman who was being abused by her partner in another jurisdiction was asked by the local authority to travel back to England to try to secure her share of the family home, before being considered for placement on the housing list and before becoming eligible to receive rent allowance for her accommodation. Clearly, if she felt it necessary to travel across the Irish Sea to get away from her partner, it was entirely unsatisfactory for the local authority to act in this manner. This is an anomaly which the Minister of State and the relevant Department, which is probably the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, must examine. Housing or accommodation for people who find themselves in such situations is essential but thus far, it does not appear to have been tackled to any degree.

I agree with other Members with regard to the problems with funding. While there has been a small improvement this year, over the last four or five years there was no improvement whatsoever in funding for the different organisations supporting domestic violence victims.

The Government might need to consider initiating preventative measures for people who find themselves in domestically violent situations. I refer to situations whereby the gardaí might be called to a house two or three times but the abused women may not wish to press charges against her partner or to proceed any further than the call-out on the night. However, a case could be made that in such situations, a mechanism should be triggered whereby the offender would be obliged to go on an anger management or similar course. This could be done instead of pursuing the individual who suffered from the domestic abuse to go to court and all that rigmarole. Quite often the victims have children by the offenders, have a strong relationship with them and do not want to take the legal route. Perhaps there is an opportunity for a mechanism to be put in place whereby some sort of intervention could be made by the gardaí that does not require victims to go to court. That would be a source of relief for many who find themselves in domestically abusive situations.