Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

The Minister is welcome. I thank him for the opportunity to speak on the Domestic Violence (Free Travel Scheme) Bill 2025. I commend the Senators on bringing this Bill before us. It is a very simple, practical idea that could make a big difference in people's lives, especially to women and children trying to escape violence at home.

I come from County Roscommon, one of the nine counties the Senator referred to that currently do not have a domestic violence refuge. However, work has started on that, and a multiagency approach is taking place in Roscommon at the moment. None of these things happen overnight. Cuan and Roscommon County Council are putting proposals together and working through them. A memorandum has been done up for this. My constituency colleague Deputy Daly has brought this up with the Minister. We are getting there. We are working through that.

To highlight that, since August 2025, Roscommon Safe Link can now offer two safe-home units to survivors of domestic abuse. We are gradually getting there and, as I said, these things do not happen overnight. However, when I spoke to representatives from Safe Link, they did say that a major barrier for most is safely accessing their service, especially when there is no means of transport. They told me they had situations where clients had been extremely reluctant to leave unsafe situations due to the fear of having no transport to maintain their children's education and no means of even travelling to a refuge or safe home in the first place. With a project as large as a refuge development, they acknowledged that it will take a significant amount of time to progress. That is why they are working with the bodies there that are trying to work with them, which directly results in their organisation having to refer people to refuges outside of County Roscommon. They said that without a means of transport, alternative refuges often result in survivors staying in unsafe situations, as the Minister said himself.

In principle, this is a very good Bill. In principle, there are a lot of the means in there that are going to address issues like people is Roscommon having to travel outside of the county to Galway, Sligo, Longford and elsewhere to find safe refuge. It is addressing an issue for those people. This Bill would give survivors of domestic violence free travel passes for three months with an option to extend it if needed. The Senators have put a great provision in there for Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, Luas, Local Links and participating private operators. It would be issued through trusted organisations. I mentioned Cuan already, but also domestic violence services so survivors do not have to tell their story over and over again. I must commend the Senators on that.

The free travel scheme is something that this Government and previous Governments have constantly invested in, and it is very well supported. The estimated expenditure on the scheme in 2025 is €107.6 million, so it is not a small figure that is going into this. What the Minister has always tried to do is ensure that those who need it most are getting that particular service. I acknowledge the compassion and common sense of this Bill. It is about using the systems that are already in place to make life a little bit easier for those at their most vulnerable. Therefore, I support this Bill in principle, but I ask, as my colleague beside me said, that the amendment be accepted by the Government to have the Bill read a Second Time in 12 months to allow for consideration and ensure that the measures are workable, implementable and sustainable.