Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026 [Seanad]: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank Deputy Carthy for putting down this amendment. I will start by disagreeing with him, however. I disagree with him when he says that the bar is incredibly high for the triggering of this statutory scheme. That is not correct. If the Deputy looks at the legislation, he will see 17 offences will trigger the scheme. Seventeen pieces of legislation or 17 convictions that will trigger it. These are convictions that are happening in Circuit Criminal Courts, and, to a lesser extent, Central Criminal Courts, on a continuous basis. It is not correct to say that the bar is incredibly high.
The issue here is that if somebody receives one of these convictions, and the scheme is triggered and the judgment is published on the register, if that person gets a term of imprisonment, they cannot apply for it to be removed. The default position is that the judgment stays on the register. There is nothing in the scheme to remove the judgment from the register. The only way that the scheme affects that is that it allows a person, three years after they have been released from prison, to bring an application to have their name removed. That means that they have to go into open court and bring the application. They have to satisfy a judge that it is appropriate that they be removed. It may be the case that the judge will refuse the relief that they are seeking. In order to do that, they will have to set out some convincing evidence to the court that will satisfy it that it believes this person is no longer the threat that resulted in them being put on the register in the first place.
What Deputy Carthy's amendment proposes is that we say that they cannot bring the application until five years. In practical terms, the court will have to be satisfied in any event, based on evidence that is put before it, that the person is no longer a threat. I know it is not something we are discussing here, and others mentioned this when legislation was mooted, but I have to give consideration to the possibility of rehabilitation. I know that is not something that is relevant in very many cases but I have to give consideration, as Minister, to the possibility of rehabilitation. I have to have regard for proportionality in the context of this Bill. This is new legislation. I have no doubt it will be challenged, and I have to be able to convince a court, if it is being challenged, that this legislation weighs up conflicting interests and recognises there is a mechanism for somebody who has reformed himself to get off the register. It allows that to be done either three years after he is released from prison or, if he is not imprisoned, three years after the conviction.
To be absolutely clear, the expiry of the three-year period does not entitle a person to get off the register. Most people will stay on this indefinitely. The only time a person can get off it is if they bring an application which is successful. What happens at present is that I am allowing them, after three years, to make an application. The final decision, and the responsibility for ensuring it is the right one, rests with the court.

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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