I thank the Aire Stáit for coming to the House today. This is a very important issue. It is not a new issue. Unfortunately, it is long-standing. It is a new proposed solution to this problem because what we are doing now clearly is not working. There are still thousands of survivors leaving women's refuges with their children and they have nowhere to go. There are women and children throughout the country today who have done exactly what they are supposed to do. They have left abusive homes, sought safety in refuges and are trying to rebuild their lives. However, they are now facing a really uncertain future because there is simply nowhere for them to go. Quite often, the perpetrator is in the family home. That is the last place we want them to return to.

They are falling between several stools. They may not be formally classified as homeless. They may not have priority on housing lists. In some cases, if they move to another jurisdiction to seek safety, they risk losing their place on those lists altogether, so they leave a place of safety and step into uncertainty. At the same time across towns and villages in every county, we have buildings lying vacant, upper floors unused, properties sitting idle and public buildings not reaching their full potential. A proposal today was made in Leinster House, led by Sarah Slazenger of Powerscourt Estate and supported by stakeholders from refuges in Bray, Drogheda and Dundalk as well as grassroots organisations such as the Soroptimists, the Women's Sheds and the Irish Countrywomen's Association, ICA, and 14 European and global ambassadors.

They offered a practical way to bring these two realities together. Their proposal calls on local authorities to take a proactive role in identifying suitable vacant and underutilised buildings, particularly in town centres, and bringing them back into use as supported, move-on, post-refuge accommodation. It is a creative use of the vacant and derelict funding and grants that are already there, just not for commercial use. This includes not just private properties but also publicly owned buildings, including those under the remit of the HSE. Collaboration is needed between the Departments of housing, justice and possibly health as well. We know there are opportunities out there. We heard this morning of a HSE property in Enniskerry which could be considered as part of a pilot scheme. That is what we need to see. We need to get the ball rolling on whether this is possible because the model itself is really straightforward.

Local authorities would work with property owners to secure long-term leases. Buildings would be refurbished to meet appropriate housing and safety standards and, crucially, accommodation would be linked with support services to ensure that women and children are supported as they rebuild their lives and become a valuable part of the community, taking a huge burden off the State. This approach has clear advantages. It is faster than new-builds, it is cost-effective and it supports town centre regeneration, which everybody is calling for at the moment. It also provides accommodation in locations where essential services are already in place. Most importantly, it addresses the gap that exists after refuge care. We are hearing that thousands of women do not have supported after-refuge care. They do not have accommodation, which means that other women and victims of domestic abuse are unable to enter those refuges. It is creating a logjam.

We heard directly this morning from those working on the ground or at the coal face, in the refuges. We heard from Soroptomists and Women's Sheds, as I mentioned, who are working with these women, as well as from international representatives. They told us that this gap is one of the most urgent issues that everyone is facing at the moment. After the refuges the women are ready to move on but there is nowhere for them to go. This proposal is not abstract. It is practical, scalable and rooted in what is already available. What is needed now is co-ordination and collaboration between the local authorities, the Departments of housing, justice and health and agencies such as the HSE. Where buildings are sitting idle, we have a responsibility to ensure they are used to serve the greater good. I ask that this model be actively examined and progressed, with pilot projects identified and delivered because we cannot continue to accept a situation where women and children leave safety only to face further uncertainty. We have the buildings and we have the need. What we need to do now is bring all of the elements together and make sure that we are providing after care and accommodation for those in dire need.

I thank the Senator and assure her that supporting individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including victims and survivors of domestic abuse, and utilising existing vacant and derelict buildings are absolute priorities for this Government. I thank Senator Comyn for raising this matter this afternoon.

The response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a cross-departmental and multi-agency issue, with overall policy co-ordinated by the Department of justice. Responsibility for the development and provision of services to support victims and survivors rests with the Minister for justice, working in conjunction with Cuan, the relevant statutory agency under the remit of that Department. However, the Government's new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, is an integrated housing and homelessness plan which aims to deliver 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030, including 72,000 social homes and 90,000 affordable homes. The Government is focused on making sure that everyone has access to good quality, secure homes that suit their needs. To achieve this, the largest ever housing budget in the history of the State has been secured in 2026, with in excess of €9 billion in capital funding through the Exchequer, the Land Development Agency and the Housing Finance Agency to support the delivery of social, starter and cost-rental homes and to bring existing vacant and derelict properties into use as homes.

Under the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, a national homelessness prevention framework is being developed within which homelessness can be prevented in a structured and planned way, with tailored prevention measures for each potential at-risk cohort, including victims and survivors of domestic violence.

In addition, the Minister, Deputy Browne, is working with the Department of the Taoiseach and a range of key stakeholders to develop a child and family homelessness action plan. The plan will place particular emphasis on prevention measures, enhanced supports for children experiencing homelessness and measures to accelerate exits and reduce the time spent by children and their families in homeless emergency accommodation. The plan will also put in place additional supports for parents and expectant mothers who are experiencing homelessness in order to support entire families. It is anticipated that the plan will be published by end of June.

Bringing existing vacant buildings back into use as homes is a priority for the Government and a key element of the new housing plan. Significant progress has been made in tackling vacancy. A key measure introduced is the vacant property refurbishment grant. It is providing substantial support to bring these properties into use as homes, with over 5,500 grants paid to date and 12,00 approvals across all our local authorities. Recognising the need to bring as many vacant properties as possible into use as homes, particularly in our towns and cities, as the Senator rightly identified, the new vacant above the shop grant has been introduced to bring these vacant upper floors into residential use.

In addition, we have the compulsory purchase order, CPO, activation programme. Under that, local authorities are required to take a proactive and systematic approach to tackling vacancy. I am on record in this House and the Lower House as saying that some local authorities are doing excellent work in this space and using their CPO powers while others simply are not. To me, as Minister of State, that is unacceptable and is something I am communicating to the local authorities when I visit them as I travel around the country.

We also have funding, through the urban regeneration development fund and through the social housing investment programme, the aim of which is to create social housing by all means, including above the shop. In some local authority areas, buy and renew and repair and use have been put to very good use. It is about a joined-up approach, thinking outside the box and putting them all together. I thank the Senator for raising this important matter.

I thank the Minister of State for his very detailed response. I do welcome all the work that is being done by the Government parties on dealing with women and children, particularly those who are homeless. However, I reiterate that many of these survivors are not listed as homeless. As a result, they are not being assisted by homelessness projects. Also, they are not necessarily entering homeless accommodation because they are not designated as being homeless, so they are falling between a couple of stools. It is in that context that we need to ring-fence, for want of a better word, what is required. There are great measures to look after women and children. There are also great measures to help deal with vacancy and dereliction and encourage people to take up the grants and use the town centre projects. At the same time, however, nothing is being said to the effect that they must be used to help survivors of domestic violence. That is what we really need to do. We need to start the conversation in that regard and get the ball rolling in the context of making sure that a certain number of these properties, be they over-the-shop units, vacant HSE properties or, perhaps, designated social housing units, be ring-fenced for the use of domestic violence survivors.

I thank the Senator again for raising this very important matter. She referred to a pilot scheme. I am sure that is something on which she will engage with the Minister. Obviously, the responsibility lies with the Department of justice, but I accept that a joined-up, cross-departmental and multi-agency approach to this issue has to be to the fore. As public representatives, we have all dealt with very difficult cases of domestic abuse. My office in Waterford has dealt with some very harrowing cases.

There are some really good examples where refuges help those women in particular who end up needing to avail of their services to navigate the process of availing of local authority supports. Some local authorities have integrated action teams in place where the HSE sits alongside agencies and the local authority. This model works well in my own constituency in Waterford, because we have to have that joined-up thinking. There are some excellent schemes in place and local authorities have the ability to deliver under all of them. We need to see more delivery of social, affordable and cost-rental homes. We also need to ensure that joined-up thinking occurs across all of the agencies and statutory bodies. This particular area needs added focus. There is no question about that.