Domestic Violence
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-01
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank the Deputy for acknowledging the progress that has been made. I want to ensure that we speed up the process. It is important that we have a good geographic spread of refuges and safe homes throughout the country. It probably will be the case that every county will have one but I am cautious about trying to adopt it as though it is just a county thing. It needs to be spread out in areas where, demographically, refuges are needed. I also repeatedly emphasised, and I am sure that the Deputy will agree, that refuges are short-term solutions to deal with women who have been subjected to domestic violence and need immediate short-term accommodation. The ultimate solution is that the person who is the abuser is the person who should get out of the house as opposed to the woman having to get out of the house and end up in a refuge for lengthy periods. That is legislative measure I am working on too.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-01