Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026 [Seanad]: Committee Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I too welcome the family of Jennifer Poole. The Ceann Comhairle has identified them individually. I specifically highlight Jason Poole, who has been steadfast in his support for this legislation. That has been hugely important to me in trying to advance this legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas. I also acknowledge the role played by all colleagues in this House. We are all aware of the background to Jennie's law and its origins in the brutal and senseless murder of a young woman. That was outlined during yesterday's debate. I really welcome the fact that Deputies from across the political spectrum support and have welcomed this legislation. I recognise that the role of Committee Stage is to allow colleagues to propose amendments they think would improve the legislation. I would not like Jennifer's family to think that what is happening here is in any way unorthodox. It is part of the legislative process. It is important that colleagues put forward proposals to test me and to see whether the legislation can be improved. We are looking at a group of amendments, Nos. 1 and 9 to 12, inclusive. Deputy Gannon's amendment, No. 1, asks me to include within the legislation a provision applying the legislation not only to convictions on indictment, that is, convictions in cases heard by the Central Criminal Court or the Circuit Criminal Court, but also to summary convictions. On page 5 of the Bill, the Oireachtas has set out a schedule of offences that should trigger the operation of Jennie's law. It obviously applies in cases of murder, manslaughter, rape, rape under section 4 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990, sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault. All of these charges can only arise on indictment. Deputy Gannon's amendment has relevance to the proposed section 40A(11)(g) because some of the offences under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act can be tried summarily. Such offences include those under sections 3, 3A, 5, 10, 13 and 15 of that Act. Deputy Gannon wants to broaden the ambit of this legislation so that it does not just include convictions on indictment but also includes summary convictions. So that people are aware, summary convictions are convictions of a minor nature that take place in the Circuit Court. With the greatest of respect to Deputy Gannon, I am not going to accept these amendments. The inclusion of summary offences would be problematic. It would lead the District Court, a court of summary jurisdiction, to start delivering judgments in respect of summary convictions that have been put in place. I agree with Deputy Gannon that any form of violence against women or other offence, even if of a minor nature, is a warning signal and something people need to be very concerned about. However, I also have to recognise what I am doing in this legislation and what Jennie's law is about. It represents a new departure insofar as it gives a statutory power to the criminal courts in relation to delivering a judgment to be put on the register. That is not a practice in the courts at present. Sometimes, the sentencing judgment in a sentencing hearing will be printed up by the Central Criminal Court or the Circuit Criminal Court and then made available. As this is novel legislation, its parameters have been very carefully drawn. It is important for me to be cautious in how I introduce this. Let us see how it develops. It may be the case that I will be back here in a year saying that Deputy Gannon's proposals were a good idea and that the provisions should be extended. I would not rule out expanding the remit of the legislation in the future. However, I deliberately adopted a measured approach in designing its scope in order to ensure that it can be implemented and can withstand any potential legal challenge. We need to be aware that there will be legal challenges to this because just as there are people who are very strong in supporting this Bill and who want to see it on the Statute Book, there are others who will be vehemently opposed to it, particularly those who are convicted of the offences outlined in the legislation. Deputy Carthy has a number of amendments in this group by means of which he is seeking to include a section 2 offence, which is a more minor assault offence. I refer to amendments Nos. 9 to 11, inclusive. In amendment No. 10, the Deputy is seeking to include reference to section 33 of the Domestic Violence Act in the context of an offence committed by somebody who contravenes a protection, safety or barring order. I am not going to accept that amendment because I want to start off with convictions on indictment in order that we can bed down the legislation and see how it operates. Deputy Gannon's amendment No. 12 seeks to include references to section 4 of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 and also section 33 of the Domestic Violence Act. For the reasons already outlined, I do not propose to accept the amendment because I want to limit it to what is there at present, namely convictions on indictment, because that is the safest way to start with this legislation. As already stated, however, I am open to looking at this down the road. The great thing about legislation is that once it is put place, we can come back and improve it in the future. When I am starting off with something novel, however, I have to be cautious. --- 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/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-15