Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What we are both trying to deal with is a situation similar to the powers the Garda has relating to children who are at risk, which we discussed at length in this committee, whereby the Garda is given exceptional powers to intervene in an immediate situation. This was similar, although I take Deputy O'Callaghan's point that the Garda could simply arrest the person. However, there may not have been the level of violence that would warrant an arrest. I am not sure. The Minister said that anyone could ring up and it could be malicious or vexatious. I find myself in the unusual position where I am in staunch defence of the members of An Garda Síochána. We are not talking about just anybody ringing up. We are talking about a call made by a garda who is on the scene, who has assessed the situation and who believes there is a requirement to remove the violent party from the home dwelling. Rather than requiring a sitting of the District Court, we propose that such a garda be authorised to simply get the permission of the judge in the immediate situation by phone or email. It was certainly not our intention to preclude members of the Garda from calling out to the judge if that is what they wanted to do instead. Our intention was to ward off the idea of cost or logistics preventing the special sitting of the court referred to by the Minister.

Maybe we have not got the wording right and we might need to look at it again on Report Stage. I agree there are issues. I am a little uncomfortable with emergency barring orders being issued ex parteand in the physical absence of the applicant. If the Government could give a commitment to ensure the out-of-hours sittings for emergency barring orders either do not incur a cost or that the cost would be covered, that would give some reassurance to overcome the deficit with which we are trying to deal.