Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-25
============================================================

Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank Senator Tully for the amendment. In many respects, the Senator's amendment is similar to the amendment that was put forward earlier by Senator Ruane, on which we had a decent debate.
As Senator Tully will be aware, the legislation provides the court with the discretion to order the inclusion of a judgment on the register. When considering whether to make an order or not, the judge will weigh up all the factors of the particular case. This will necessarily include the circumstances of the convicted person and the circumstances of the victim and of any child or children connected to the case. Considerations of safety and welfare will be paramount in the exercise of any such decision by a judge.
I am fully aware the courts are very much alive to the sensitivities of such cases. The Judicial Council Act provides a statutory basis for education and training of the Irish Judiciary. The Judicial Studies Committee exists, which is very important. It includes modules on procedural justice, courtroom dynamics, judicial conduct and ethics as well as unconscious bias. The committee further offers a series of education and training programmes to the entire Judiciary and they are very important.
We just look at the broad principle of legislation and see how it operates. When judges enter into office, when they are deciding a case or exercising a discretion such as will be available under this legislation is that they have to take into account all the circumstances of a particular case. We will not be aware of much of the detail. There could be factors that arise that none of us in this House has ever considered. That is why the Judiciary is mandated to exercise the judicial function in this State so that all those factors are taken into account in the interests of justice.
I thank the Senator for her amendment. I do not believe it is necessary. I believe all those factors will be taken into account by judges exercising the discretion that is available to them under this legislation.

---

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/2026-06-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-25