“Complex” issues around constitutional property rights could complicate Government plans that would allow for the removal of domestic abusers from family homes in high-risk cases.
The Department of Justice is considering legislating for powerful removal orders, which would place the burden of leaving the family home on the perpetrators of domestic violence rather than on the victim and their children.
However, the department has received legal advice which is understood to reference the constitutional rights of the alleged abuser.
A view has emerged within the Government that the number of people made homeless by domestic violence may be understated in official figures.
Of the 1,532 households that presented as homeless to local authorities in the third quarter of this year, 379 cited relationship breakdown or family circumstances as the reason they were homeless. It was the leading reason for homelessness during that period, ahead of notices of termination for rental properties, which made 325 households homeless.
A further 55 households specifically cited domestic violence as the reason they were presenting as homeless. It is understood that some officials believe the relationship breakdown figure may also include people who have fled abusive or dangerous relationships.
Domestic abuse has been recorded as a cause of homelessness in official statistics since the start of last year. However, some domestic abuse refuges have questioned the accuracy of these figures, which frontline workers believe do not fully capture the number of people made homeless because of domestic violence.
Some women and children are living long term in domestic abuse refuges as they have nowhere else to move on to because of the housing crisis. These abuse survivors are not counted in official homelessness statistics.
Concerns have also been expressed by refuges and Cuan, the State agency for domestic violence, that the threat of becoming homeless could be forcing some survivors to return to the family home and the abusive relationship.
The Government’s latest housing plan, published last week, said removing the legal barriers that can prevent people experiencing domestic violence from remaining at home is recognised as “an important factor in preventing homelessness”.
The department confirmed it was considering new removal orders for abusers, which would be similar to the domestic abuse protection order (DPO) in the UK. First introduced in parts of England last year, DPOs give police enhanced powers to set exclusion zones for perpetrators of domestic abuse – which can include the family home.
“The department is committed to exploring means of ensuring, to the greatest extent possible, that the burden of leaving the family home does not fall on those experiencing abuse,” a spokeswoman said.
“In particular, legal advice has been sought in relation to whether removal orders could be introduced, similar to the domestic abuse protection order that operates in the UK, as a short-term means of ensuring that perpetrators of domestic abuse can be removed from the home in high-risk cases.”
She added: “The legal and constitutional issues around proposals of this nature are complex and the advice received is currently under consideration.”
Meanwhile, Minister for State at the Department of Housing John Cummins yesterday said consideration is being given to exemptions to planning laws which would allow properties to be subdivided into apartments and for modular homes to be constructed behind homes.
The Sunday Times reported that Minister for Housing James Browne had said he supported there being “choice” for older people, which included giving them the option to split their property into apartments.
“There’s nobody going to force older people to do something that they don’t want to do with regards to their home,” Mr Cummins told RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week.
He said he would be bringing forward proposals for domestic exemptions in the new year.