Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-16
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Garret Kelleher (FG), Industrial and Commercial Panel

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire, an Teachta O'Callaghan, agus ba mhaith liom ár mbuíochas a ghabháil leis as ucht teacht inár measc anocht agus páirt lárnach a ghlacadh sa díospóireacht.
Thar ceann Fhine Gael, fáiltím roimh an mBille atá os ár gcomhair anocht. Is céim thar a bheith tábhachtach agus fhorásach í an Bille seo i dtreo feabhas a chur ar na cosaintí atá againne inár gcóras ceartais choiriúil dóibh siúd atá i mbaol foréigean teaghlaigh nó foréigean baile. On behalf of the Fine Gael group, I welcome the Bill before us as a progressive and necessary step, which I believe will provide additional safeguards for persons at risk of domestic violence. As I stated in this Chamber last month during the Fianna Fáil group's Private Members' Bill on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, it is essential that supports for victims are at the heart of what we do when legislating. In this regard, this Bill has a victim-centred approach and its core. I welcome the requirement for a victim to give his or her consent before the person convicted of a crime against them is added to the public register. This mitigates against the possibility of justice being delivered in a way that goes against the wishes of victims and therefore reduces the possibility of victims being retraumatised after the offence against them has taken place.
Like the Minister and other contributors, I also welcome Jason Poole, Joe Poole and David French to the Seanad Chamber. I am conscious the provision to which I just referred would not have applied to either Jason's or David's sisters, Jennifer Poole and Valerie French, both of whom lost their lives as a result of domestic violence. I also wish to take the opportunity to thank Jason, David and their families for their ongoing and tireless campaigning.
One of the expressed aims of the Bill is to assist people in a relationship, or considering entering into a relationship, with a person to ascertain whether that person has a history of serious domestic violence convictions. A possible unintended consequence of the register is that by its nature it can never be complete and may give the impression that persons not listed on the register can be considered safe as prospective partners, which is not necessarily the case. This is something that we need to bear in mind on the remaining Stages of the legislative process. The Minister may wish to comment on that at the end of the debate. I welcome that the register will be implemented in a broader context of preventative and protective measures, such as Operation Devise, and the information will be presented in a way that is linked insofar as possible with domestic violence services to ensure anyone consulting the register will be directed towards appropriate supports for themselves or another person about whom they are concerned.
In this context and in relation to strengthening the Bill through the later legislative Stages, I recommend further consultation with groups such as Rape Crisis Ireland, Women's Aid and campaigners such as Jason, Joe, David and their families as well as Cuan, to which the Minister referred in his opening statement, to ensure we arrive at a robust final Bill which when enacted will protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

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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