Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome that the Bill has come before the Dáil today. In common with other Deputies, I congratulate the Government on bringing it forward and Members of Seanad Éireann on their significant engagement on it. I have a copy of the Committee Stage amendments from the Seanad, which are quite significant and were proposed by Members from across the political spectrum. I was particularly interested in the amendments submitted by my Labour Party colleagues and the Civil Engagement group but also those of other parties.

I also thank the Government for accepting a number of Opposition amendments, or at least the spirit of them, in the Seanad.

The Bill will allow Ireland to ratify the Istanbul Convention, which we signed in November 2015. This is a very important step forward for people in Ireland. I accept that while domestic violence is mostly committed in respect of women, it can be committed in respect of others as well. It is a huge problem and a Europe-wide one. I think Barnardos has statistics on domestic violence across Europe generally and, I am sure, in other parts of the world. It is very significant that we have a Bill which addresses many of the issues that have been highlighted. This is also a consolidation Bill that brings together various other items of legislation enacted previously, including the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Act 2002, the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 and the Domestic Violence Act 1996. We welcome the Bill and will support it.

I, too, commend the various organisations involved. SAFE Ireland has been mentioned, as has the National Women's Council of Ireland. Women's Aid has done significant work on the Bill, as has Barnardos, in the context of children. I hope I have not left others out. In November, Women's Aid published an updated submission that is quite detailed and very useful for our consideration of how we might propose further amendments to the legislation. I know that some of the organisations had expressed the wish that the Bill pass fully through the Houses of the Oireachtas before Christmas. Obviously, this will not happen because we are only on Second Stage. However, I know the Minister has said that he intends to have the Bill pass as soon as possible. We should all ensure that this happens.

The measures contained in the Bill have been mentioned by previous speakers. I particularly welcome the extension of eligibility for safety and protection orders to all persons in intimate and committed relationships regardless of cohabitation, the new offence of coercive control, the introduction of factors to which the courts shall have regard in determining applications for orders and the inclusion of the relationship between the defendant and the victim as an aggravating circumstance in relevant offences. I will come back to the latter when I talk about how we might strengthen the Bill.

As a result of the fact that we public representatives, we have all had conversations with people facing domestic violence. Their stories are very harrowing. People who are long-term victims of domestic violence - it need not be physical - very often have their self-esteem completely destroyed and they then find it very difficult to take action for their own safety and that of their children. We must understand this in the context of this legislation. I have had a number of confidential conversations, as I am sure others have had, where one gets to understand exactly what domestic violence does to a person. We might ask why people experiencing domestic violence do not get out of their relationships. When one has been in such a relationship for a long time, it is difficult to find the strength to get out of it because of the impact on that one's self-confidence and sense of having some power over one's own life. For this reason, there are a number of measures in the Bill which I think are particularly useful. I refer here, for example, to section 9, which relates to emergency barring orders. The section applies to individuals who have finally found that they simply must break the abusive relationship and ensure their own protection. It is an important aspect of the Bill. There are other aspects that have been discussed by others and I will not take up time discussing them further. They are extremely important, however.

I wish to pay tribute to ADAPT House, which operates in my constituency and which has done wonderful work in this area for a long period. It has been in existence for I do not know how many decades and has been a place of refuge for many women and children over the years.

I wish to pay tribute to the work undertaken by those involved. I know others have referred to projects they are familiar with in their constituencies.

Information is important because people get into situations that are urgent and they do not have time to figure out what they are going to do. We need to give as much information as we can to people. I said the same when I was discussing the homeless issue earlier. When people are in urgent situations, they need to be able to access the necessary information about where they can go and what they can do. I hope that will happen in this case. The Citizens Information Board has produced a good document that goes into considerable detail. It is useful and people should be aware that they can get such information from their local citizens' information centres. We need other ways of ensuring that the relevant information is available for people.

I wish to briefly cover some of the areas that we might propose for amendment when we get to Committee and Report Stages. Women's Aid has made seven recommendations. I emphasise that the organisation has been very positive about the Bill, but those involved are suggesting ways in which could be strengthened. Women's Aid representatives have referred to the fact that in the Bill, eligibility for safety and protection orders is extended to applicants who were in an intimate and committed relationship with the respondent prior to applying for the orders. While this is an excellent extension, Women's Aid queries how the courts will determine that a relationship was committed or otherwise in the absence of cohabitation. The organisation has suggested this wording may create difficulties. In the Seanad, the Minister suggested that the Department would consider the possible implications of the word "committed" and whether other wording could be found or formulated. Perhaps before we move on to subsequent Stages there can be some consideration of that point in the meantime. Women's Aid provided an example in which an abuser may challenge that the relationship was committed on the basis that he does not feel committed. In other words, the perpetrator does not feel committed. Women's Aid has suggested other situations where the word "committed" might cause difficulties as well.

Barnardos has also highlighted a second point relating to children. As Deputy Rabbitte noted earlier, Barnardos has raised four different areas of concern. Barnardos strongly believes the Bill should be strengthened to ensure children's safety needs are assessed and addressed. Deputy Rabbitte highlighted several other points relating to contact centres, removing the property test for cohabitants applying for a barring order where the best interests of the child so requires and removing fees to access legal aid. The removal of fees to access legal aid is important. The fact that there is a fee can mean a child cannot get the protection he or she needs.

My Labour Party colleagues in the Seanad proposed an amendment in a third area. It relates to the increasing use of electronic technologies to monitor, control and harass women during an abusive relationship and after separation. They commended and supported the inclusion of the provision in section 6(2)(c), that prohibits the respondent from following or communicating, including by electronic means, with the applicant or the dependent person. They made the point, however, that much damage to the welfare and reputation of victims is done by communication to third parties about the women, usually through electronic means and not necessarily with them. The Senators provided a number of examples, including image-based sexual abuse, which is commonly known as revenge porn, advertising of women on escort sites, accessing or modifying a woman's online data, falsely impersonating the woman online, alienating friends and supports and spreading lies and rumours about the woman that affect her personally and professionally. This area could be looked at further as well. We can see the power of social media and the Internet across so many areas. Moreover, we can see the power people have to manipulate social media in a negative way and use it against a person. That is another factor in this case and I suggest that this area be looked at as well.

My Labour colleagues in the Seanad tabled an amendment in that regard, as I mentioned.

Like others, I very much welcome that we are able to deal with this legislation on Second Stage. It has been a long time coming and much work has been put into it by the Department and the current and previous Minister. The Seanad did a really good piece of work and it is to be commended on it. The willingness of the Government to interact with the Seanad and accept either amendments or the principle of amendments is important, but we have a job to do now in the Dáil to ensure this Bill is as strong and enabling as possible for people who are involved in cases of domestic violence and who urgently need to be able to get out and move on with their lives in a way that would keep them and their children safe.

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