A domestic violence support group is to remain open for the time being after it accepted an offer by the Department of Justice to fund it on a month-by-month basis.
At a press conference the National Domestic Violence and Intervention Agency (NDVIA) said it had accepted the offer made to them over the telephone but that the offer was for a maximum of three months only.
During that time the Government assured the agency that it would make a firm decision on its future which could include the possibility of a roll-out on a national level.
Michael McDowell
Grainne Healy Project Development Worker at NDVIA said officials at the department had made the eleventh-hour offer 30 minutes before the group was to announce its closure.
Ms Healy said the last few months have been "a very difficult time" for the agency and blamed "a mismanagment issue of the project within the government department".
"We hopeful that that problem is now over and that we are looking forward to working in the next couple of months to find a long and lasting solution to the difficulties we have had," she said.
Earlier, Tánaiste Michael McDowell said he saw "no reason" why the group should close.
The NDVIA, which has been operating a pilot project in Dún Laoghaire since 2003, was set to announce its closure due to a lack of funding from the department at lunchtime today.
However, Mr McDowell said his department, as a gesture of "good will", was prepared to continue to keep the agency's funding going while Government policy is decided.
The Tánaiste said that the Government is awaiting a report from the Minister responsible, Frank Fahey, as to whether the model the agency has been following should be rolled out across the country.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin earlier, Mr McDowell said: "There is no excuse for winding it up and gestures of this kind would have no effect on Government Policy.
"They will only damage the people we are trying to assist, and that is victims of domestic violence," Mr McDowell added.
CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, said it is "imperative" the NDVIA is supported and allowed to continue its work.
"As one of the front line agencies responding to the terrible consequences of domestic violence, we are calling on the Government to please support the continuation of the work of the NDVIA and make the monies available," she said.
Labour's Kathleen Lynch and the Green's Ciarán Cuffe both called on the Tánaiste to act immediately and prevent the agency's closure.
