Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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373. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the local authorities that have a domestic violence officer. [9794/22]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.

However, granular data, in terms of individual roles in local authorities is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information should be available from each local authority.

Local authorities do assist victims of domestic violence in meeting their emergency and long-term housing needs. My Department has issued policy and procedural guidance to local authorities on the role they can play to assist victims of domestic violence which is available at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/publication/7e168-guidance-for-housing-authorities-for-assisting-victims-of-domestic-violence-with-emergency-and-long-term-accommodation-needs/.

The guidance is also a useful reference for service providers, highlighting where they can be of greatest assistance to their clients, covering a range of scenarios that may arise for victims of domestic violence currently in receipt of social housing support and those seeking social housing supports.