I have become aware of a situation with a constituent who, as the victim of domestic violence, had to leave her local authority home for her safety. When this person applied to Tipperary County Council for alternative accommodation she had to reapply to be included on the housing list. Given there is a total of 15 single-bedroom houses available for 690 approved applicants, this woman will be waiting for years. The council gave her a HAP package, but with the shortage of available housing there is little available to her. Is it not disgraceful that a woman who had to flee her home because of domestic abuse is now in a situation where she is officially classed as having given up her council home and must reapply to the waiting list, while her partner and perpetrator of the abuse remains in the house? I put it to the Tánaiste that we need to see measures taken to ensure that victims of such abuse are not the ones who lose out as a result of having to leave their home. Will the Tánaiste take measures to ensure that people who are forced to leave their homes due to violence are not classed as having given up their houses?

I am very sorry to hear about that case and what that lady is experiencing. I recall that under the last Government we did change the law to give victims of domestic violence much stronger legal rights in situations like this so it is the perpetrator and abuser who has to leave the home, not the victim of the abuse or violence. Perhaps there is a legal remedy in this case that she may be able to take up using that law. Without knowing the detail of the individual case it is difficult for me to answer but the law does provide for that.