Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Select Committee on Justice and Equality

Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee Stage

Photo of James LawlessJames Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will discuss amendments Nos. 7 to 13, inclusive and No. 46 together. Amendments Nos. 8 and 9 are alternatives to No. 7. Amendments Nos. 11 and 12 are alternatives to No. 10. Again, we effectively have a block of amendments.

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 4, to delete lines 13 to 19 and substitute the following:

“(3) A person commits an offence where he or she, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, stalks another person (in this section referred to as the other person) by— (a) persistently following, watching, pestering or besetting the other person,

(b) persistently communicating by any means of communication with the other person, or

(c) persistently communicating with a third person by any means of communication about the other person. (4) For the purposes of this section a person stalks the other person where— (a) he or she, by his or her acts intentionally or recklessly, seriously interferes with the other person’s peace and privacy,

(b) causes alarm, distress or harm to the other person, and

(c) his or her acts are such that a reasonable person would realise that the acts would seriously interfere with the other person’s peace and privacy and cause alarm, distress or harm to the other person. (5) A person who commits an offence under this section is liable— (a) on summary conviction to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or to both.”.

The first amendment in this section, No. 7, is in my name. As I indicated at the start, I will not press any amendments I have tabled myself. I may return to them on Report Stage but I solely want to note that this pertains to the standalone definition of "stalking" as a separate offence. It was contained within the Law Reform Commission report as one of the other options for this legislation but it is not contained within the current Bill. As I said, I will not press that amendment or speak to it any further other than to indicate it and perhaps we will return to that on Report Stage, depending on how the Bill develops in between. I withdraw amendment No. 7.

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