Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026 [Seanad]: Committee Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Paul McAuliffe (FF), Dublin North-West

I welcome the clarification that it is three years after the sentence has been served. If someone has served a seven- or eight-year sentence under one of the 17 offences, they would not be able to apply for the removal until they get to year ten or 11. I welcome that clarification. The idea that someone comes off three years after the conviction is not the case; it is three years after the sentence has concluded. It is interesting that the Minister used the word "rehabilitation" and that it struck a chord in this House because, if I recall, that was the wording used during pre-legislative scrutiny by the Law Society. That gives us an insight into how a court might assess this legislation if it comes before it.
The Law Society's argument in that discussion was that the sentence was the punishment and that an additional burden being put on the person who had committed the offence could be seen by a court as being unreasonable.
I am with members of the Opposition here. Whether it is ten, 15 or 20 years, I have no problem with the time but what I am concerned about is that, were the Minister to extend it now, we could find ourselves in 18 months' time having no Jennie’s law at all. A court could strike out this law because it did not have regard to a principle that nobody in this House might have sympathy for but that the court assessing the law inevitably would, namely, the balancing of the two rights. Having fought for so long to have this law in place in respect of the 17 offences we are speaking about, we could end up not having it at all. If there is room for it to be extended, I would not oppose that but I want to be very careful that we have something robust that stands up so that we do not end up with no register at all.

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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