Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-16 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister to the House again. I join Senator Gallagher in commenting about the positive zeal and determination he has for his portfolio. He has clearly demonstrated that. My only fear is he will have got through the whole programme for Government in terms of his own portfolio by the end of the year, but that is a nice objective, a nice date and a nice timeline. I wish him well with all of that. I welcome Jason Poole and Joe Poole. I know it must be a very painful journey for them. It is great they are strong enough, able enough and robust enough to drive the campaign for Jennie's law. What a fitting tribute that they have the energy and the support. They clearly have the support of the Oireachtas and the Minister. That is critical in getting legislation. It takes a lot to get any legislation into Leinster House. I am delighted and I take on board what Senator O'Loughlin spoke about in terms of her commitment and that this legislation was initiated in this House, which is important. There is not all that much legislation initiated in the Seanad. I also thank the Minster for that. I also welcome David French, who has had his own difficulties in his family, and his campaign, advocacy, belief and commitment to getting justice too. This is the Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026. The Minister made an ask, as did Senator O'Loughlin, in relation to the Minister's hope and ambition to get this law through the Houses. I give the Minister an absolute commitment on behalf of the Seanad Independent Group that there will be nothing standing in the way of or frustrating in any way to delay this legislation. The passage of this legislation will have significant support across the House. It certainly will have it from our Members. We do not envisage any delay on any Stage for the rest of this legislation. We wholly and fully support the Minister in his endeavours. The Minister said this was a short piece of legislation. I prefer to use the word "concise". That is the clever nature of the Minister being a barrister, with that training, and also his parliamentary draughtsmen, advisers and officials in the Department. At this point, I acknowledge the staff who support the Minister in this important work, who are the unsung heroes many times in Departments in particular around legislation. This is a concise piece of legislation that will provide individuals - as was peppered throughout the Minister's speech we know this is more commonly associated with women - with important information in relation to safety. It will establish a mechanism to seek out from official sources details of past history and serious offending that would give warnings of an increased risk of domestic, sexual or gender-based violence. This will benefit those in a relationship or considering entering a relationship with such a person rather than relying on secondary material of such reporting. The measure is one component of our collective fight, and it is important it is a collective fight, against domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I take this opportunity to also acknowledge the support of advocates. There are many advocates who have for many years been working quietly away in being supportive of people who are victims of domestic abuse, coercive control and many aspects covered in this Bill. Many of them have gone around in silence for a long time but that day is over now and people are talking about it. A great thing is the collective - men, women and all people - recognition of the absolute damage and devastation domestic abuse does to family, people, our society and our communities. There is no point in going on at length to speak for my full time; it is not necessary. I am fully committed to every line in this legislation. I commit the Seanad Independent Group to doing likewise. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-16/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:03+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-16