Disclaimer – Domestic abuse is a devastating reality that affects both men and women. Nothing in this article seeks to diminish or ignore the experiences of men who also suffer violence at home. However, the statistics and commentary referenced here – particularly from the Irish Examiner and related studies – focus on women and children.
For that reason, this piece keeps its analysis within that scope, while fully acknowledging that abuse in any form, against any person, is unacceptable.
Introduction
In September 2025, I published a blog post arguing that Ireland’s housing crisis is actively worsening domestic violence, not indirectly, but structurally. The core point was simple but uncomfortable – when safe housing does not exist, leaving an abusive home often becomes impossible. Read HERE.
A recent article by the Irish Times quoting Women’s Aid, does not introduce a new problem. It confirms that the situation described earlier has only continued to deteriorate.
The original MyLittleHome.ie article focused on two urgent priorities:
- Expanding refuge spaces, support staff & rehabilitation schemes (through intentional mobilisation of the Apple Tax windfall received in 2025)
- Criminalising sex-for-rent exploitation
But it also made a clear warning – without long-term housing pathways, refuges alone cannot solve this crisis.
The recent Irish Times article shows how this warning continues to materialise.
Women’s Aid reports that women are:
- Expected to make significantly more calls to domestic violence charities after the Christmas festivities
- Delaying leaving abusive relationships and remaining in unsafe homes longer
- Returning to abusers after refuge stays
Not because services do not exist, but because there is nowhere to go next.
1. Housing Scarcity as a Tool of Control
One of the most important overlaps between both articles is the role that housing insecurity plays in coercion.
In the previous article, I described how:
- Abusers weaponise the threat of homelessness against vulnerable women
- Scarcity removes a victim’s ability to choose safety
- Desperation opens the door to various forms of exploitation such as sex-for-rent
The Irish Times reporting reinforces this, and highlights how economic abuse and housing shortages work together. When rent is unaffordable, supply is scarce, and social housing access is slow, leaving becomes a financial impossibility.
At that point, “choice” is an illusion.
2. Policy Recognition Without Comprehensive Protection Is Not Enough
The Government acknowledges it needs to review its 2017 Procedural Guidance for housing authorities in relation to assisting victims of domestic violence with emergency and long-term accommodation.
Women’s Aid also suggests there needs to be a provision to allow someone to be removed from a local authority tenancy where they are perpetrating domestic violence, in the same way they can be removed from a private tenancy for antisocial behaviour.
To be honest, I wasn’t aware that there was no provision for that in Irish Domestic Violence Legislation. Women’s Aid is clear; recognition of domestic violence without comprehensive protections leaves women exposed.
This echoes a central frustration in my previous blog post:
- Slow progress on sex-for-rent criminalisation and
- Inadequate refuge coverage
Why Refuge Expansion Alone Will Not Fix This
Refuges are essential, but insufficient. Ireland still falls well short of Istanbul Convention targets – which require 1 family place for every 10,000 of the population.
This means that Ireland needs over 500 family refuge places, but as of 2024, Ireland provides less than 30%.
But even where refuge spaces exist, women cannot move on if:
- Long-term social housing is unavailable, partly due to the ongoing housing crisis
- Private rentals are unaffordable or inaccessible
- Tenancy rules fail to protect survivors
This creates a revolving door that benefits no one.
If housing policy continues as is, the consequences are predictable:
- Women remain longer in dangerous homes
- Reporting abuse becomes riskier, not safer
- Exploitation will continue to thrive in desperation
- Refuge systems will clog under continuous pressure
The housing crisis does not merely sit alongside domestic violence. It actively sustains it.
How Intentional Use of Only a Portion of the 14Billion Apple Tax Windfall Can Help.
1. Buy Easily Restorable Vacant & Derelict Homes for Social Housing.
According to GeoDirectory, there is an estimated 80,000+ vacant or derelict homes in Ireland. This figure is politically and economically unsustainable during a housing crisis.
With political willpower, the state can use part of the Apple money to identify and buy easily restorable vacant & derelict homes at discounted prices from willing sellers and convert them into social housing stock.
This will serve 5 purposes:
- These homes will be added to the local council social housing stock
- These homes may even meet and exceed the number of required emergency homes set out in the Istanbul Convention
- It will also increase guaranteed emergency options available for people dealing with domestic violence
- It will increase the number of trauma-informed, long term housing
- It will actually increase the supply of homes in the market and eventually help to stabilise housing prices
2. Help to Pay Extra Staff Needed.
Domestic Violence support and prevention cannot function without staff. And staff needs to be trained and paid fairly.
An allocation from the Apple Fund will go a long way in:
- Training support staff
- Facilitating automatic tenancy succession where abuse is proven
- Paying staff responsible for the follow-up and risky removal of domestic violence perpetrators from social housing where appropriate
3. Criminalising sex-for-rent Must include guaranteed housing exits.
The Irish Times article strengthens the case that:
- Reporting abuse without housing alternatives is unsafe
- Women will not come forward if disclosure means homelessness
The Apple money can help provide safeguards and protections for both landlords and victims.
Final Words
The housing crisis directly breeds more domestic violence.
The State has a one-in-a million Apple Tax windfall that can go a long way in resolving this housing crisis if deployed with immediate strategic intent and political willpower – by providing more housing.
Safe housing is not a secondary support for survivors of domestic violence, but a form of protection.
Without it:
- Criminalisation lacks teeth because law only works when people can safely use it, and right now women cannot.
- Refuges become temporary holding spaces
- Victims are forced to under-report cases due to fear of homelessness, which only exacerbates the cycle of domestic violence
Until housing policy understands this reality, Ireland will continue to fail some of its most vulnerable residents.
