Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026 [Seanad]: Committee Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan As I mentioned on Second Stage, I welcome the fact that this Bill has progressed as speedily as it has. I have commended the Minister and his officials on prioritising what is a singular piece of legislation. It is a huge testimony to the family of Jennifer Poole, particularly Jason, because they have convinced the entirety of political opinion in this House of the merits of this measure. That is a phenomenal achievement on their part. I want to say to them that they have done Jennifer proud by being able to do so much. The Minister mentioned that the great thing about legislation is that once it is introduced, it can be amended at a later stage. However, he will know that the process in this regard is not simple. The key is always that when we have got to the point where legislation with such widespread political support has been introduced, we need to get it right. Amendments Nos. 9 10 and 12 are in my name. Amendment No. 9 proposes the following: In page 5, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “(ai) section 2, where the offence is committed against a spouse, civil partner, cohabitant or person in an intimate relationship;”. The reason for this amendment is that there is a genuine concern that the ambit of the legislation is too narrow and will not capture the bulk of domestic violence offences. As has been mentioned, Women's Aid has warned that many domestic violence-related offences under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act are prosecuted summarily in the District Court and, therefore, would not be captured by the proposed register. We also know that many domestic charges are reduced to lesser offences through plea bargaining. I refer, for example, to a section 3 offence being reduced to a section 2 assault. This was the situation in one very high-profile case recently. Under the Bill, where a section 2 assault is committed against an intimate partner, it would result in that person not being included on the register when, in fact, we know that the offence is, most likely, part of a pattern of domestic violence and abuse. I again appeal to the Minister, even at this late stage, to accept the amendment and create an offence under section 2 where a crime is committed against a spouse, civil partner, cohabitant or person living in an intimate relationship in order that we might get to the core of this. If the Minister is not willing to accept the amendment, I ask him to provide assurances, insofar as it is possible, that the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, will take into account the fact that any plea bargaining reducing a section 3 charge to a section 2 charge in a case of domestic violence would allow an offender to evade inclusion on the domestic violence register. This should be a caveat for the DPP in his or her consideration of plea bargains that might not have been in place heretofore. Amendment No. 10 reads, "In page 5, line 31, after “section 2” to insert “or section 3”." Section 3 criminalises recording, sharing or publishing an intimate image without consent where it seriously interferes with a person's privacy or causes alarm, distress or harm to them. For what I consider logical reasons, this should also be added to the list of offences. Amendment No. 12 states: In page 5, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(j) an offence under section 33 of the Domestic Violence Act 2018.”. This amendment adds a breach of a domestic violence order, as the Minister said, to the list of offences that will lead to people being included on the domestic violence register. This makes absolute sense. It will be a real omission if it is not included, particularly if we genuinely want this to be a domestic violence judgment register. One of the fears relating to this legislation, which has been mentioned here and in the Seanad, is that somebody might seek to look at the register. If somebody is going to look at this register, it means that there are concerns. If they look and see that somebody's name is not on it, that might give them a sense of unfounded relief. The Minister was at pains, and rightly so, to say that this is what it is and that it should not be taken as an absolute guarantee of anything. However, if somebody has been convicted of domestic violence offences, either summarily or in the context of a section 3 conviction, and is not included in the register, then the truth of the matter is that the register is not going to be as fulsome as it should be. This is the crucial point. We must bear in mind that the vast majority of domestic violence offences and abuses never make their way to court. Most of them never result in a complaint. When complaints are made, most of them never see a file being sent to the DPP. Even when that happens, most of them never actually make it to court. The vast majority of cases involving sexual or gender-based violence or domestic abuse will never actually come before a court. When they do, even the most minor of offences are generally just the tip of the iceberg. If somebody is the subject of a summary conviction for domestic violence abuse, in the majority of, not all, cases, that is just a small signal of a pattern of abuse. Margaret Loftus made this point very passionately when she spoke at the justice committee's launch of the report on gender-based violence last week. She made the point that when a woman, in the majority cases we are talking about women, goes to a Garda station to make a complaint about domestic violence you can virtually bet your life that it is not the first instance of domestic violence that she has encountered. It is usually after a prolonged period of abuse that somebody will get the wherewithal, the courage and the support necessary to bring that to the attention of the Garda. When somebody has managed to get to the point where they are making a complaint to the Garda and if the gardaí looking at the evidence see the merit of bringing a charge against the individual and they bring that to court and it results in a conviction, then absolutely there should be no question but that should be recorded in this register. I again appeal to the Minister. Let us get this right. Let us not depend on a future Minister or a future Oireachtas to fix this at a later stage. Let us actually ensure that we live up to the spirit of this legislation, which has come about from the campaign and work of Jason and the Poole family, by ensuring it is as comprehensive as possible. I again ask the Minister to consider these amendments even at this late stage. --- 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