Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2020-12-18
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

The problem happens with "persistently". Something that is deemed not persistent, in terms of it happening daily and weekly, undermines seriousness because it seems that something has to be persistent to be serious. Leaving the word "serious" and looking at the work "persistent", persistence could be even setting the bar too high in terms of people thinking that it has to be daily and nightly, and not concentrated on different times of the year. If it is not deemed persistent, it is not deemed serious. If, for instance, only three events happen every year, they are so serious on the person's well-being but they are not seen as persistent because it has only happened three times a year. Already, we know that if something is not happening regularly or every day, its seriousness is diluted somehow. That does not seem to make sense.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2020-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-12-18