Ms Elizabeth Farries:

I thank Senator Ruane for raising this additional example of abusive treatment online. I also thank Paul for the statement, which captures very well the types of harms that are experienced when these images are shared without consent online. It illustrates perfectly how incredibly damaging and challenging it can be. I would like to respond to the two specific questions asked by Senator Ruane about criminalisation and the types of legislation that we might look at. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties supports the findings of the Law Reform Commission. There might be an amendment to the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act in order to criminalise those sorts of behaviour. We specifically talked about image-based sexual abuse. We support the criminalisation of that through an amendment of that specific Act. We also support the creation of a civil wrong. That is the response to the first question.

I will now respond to the second question on the intent to cause distress. Senator Ruane referenced Dara's mother's statements about that to the media. There is Scottish legislation dealing with image-based sexual abuse that focuses on the circulation of these images with the intent to cause distress.

That does not go far enough because, as we have said in the submissions, intention to cause distress is not the only motivation. There are a variety of intentions. To be clear; criminal law requires intent. There needs to be an action and an intention. We just want to be careful that we do not inadvertently narrow that intention so that other reasons are lost. Perhaps someone circulates an image because he or she thinks it will be lucrative and he or she wants to make a lot of money. Perhaps it is being done for salacious reasons. Perhaps the principal motivation is to violate someone's autonomy and dignity. That does not necessarily capture distress alone so, as always, we need to be very careful about how we draft this.