Update given on domestic violence refuge for Laois 

FIANNA Fáil councillor Catherine Fitzgerald asked for the council to give an update on the domestic violence refuge for Laois at the recent monthly meeting.

Senior council management pointed out that they purchased a 0.7 acre site in November 2023 to “facilitate and support” the development of a domestic violence refuge in the county.

The council is currently seeking to acquire an additional 0.3 acre site to enable the construction of the site.

Councillors were informed that local authority is required to partner with an Approved Housing Body (AHB) and once that has been established the council will support an application to the Department of Housing under the capital assistance scheme.

A senior official told the meeting that, “the council is acutely aware of a domestic violence refuge for the county.The senior steering group will meet this month in order to progress matters.

Cllr Fitzgerald revealed that Laois is “one of only nine counties not to have such a domestic refuge. Several refuges (countrywide) are full. Demand for a refuge is huge but even the ones which are operating no longer have any capacity left,” she continued.

“These are potentially dangerous situations for a woman and her family. This is absolutely scandalous where we are now. The women in Laois are going to suffer for longer and longer and longer. How long more is this going to go on? We have nowhere to offer a woman in Laois.

“A protected structure for a potential site should never have been offered. There is no guarantee that this additional site will go ahead. We’ll be here again next Christmas (2025) without a refuge. The government said there is the money available and yet we still have no building.” Cllr Dwane Stanley backed Cllr Tuohy’s calls to progress the creation of the refuge as soon as possible as the situation "is going to take forever" to sort out.