Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I completely agree with the Deputy. Be it stalking, harassment or whatever we call it, it absolutely ruins peoples' lives and can have a devastating impact. There is a certain situation of which we are both aware where a horrendous crime has been committed and a person has served time and is now potentially continuing that level of harassment. I gave a commitment that this would be dealt with in a separate Bill.

The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 was obviously dealt with but more recently, last week, we had Second Stage of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022, which introduced stalking as a stand-alone offence for the first time. The Bill expanded the harassment offence but it also introduced a new system of civil orders around stalking-type behaviour.

One big challenge here is for somebody to have to go back to court and go through a criminal case again with a person with which he or she has gone through it before. It can be quite daunting and difficult and the threshold to have that succeed may be much higher. What we are saying with the civil order is that it does not require criminal prosecution. It would require a lower threshold whereby one can make it clear that a person's behaviour might likely impact on a person's well-being, mental health or state of being and it would be much easier, either for an individual or a member of An Garda Síochána, to get a protection order against another person in the civil courts without having to go through a criminal trial.

I appreciate it means that a person has to go through another process through which he or she might have already gone but we have to accept that if a person is convicted of a crime and has served a time, obviously, there is no way to go back on that unless a particular order has been put in place by the judge at the time to the effect that the person must comply with certain conditions on release. It is still the case that this can be said by a judge or that certain conditions can be put in place but if that does not happen, what I have set out here is a much easier and more simplified process that would allow somebody to impose a restraining order on someone whose actions and behaviours might not meet the threshold for stalking or harassment but whose actions, certainly to a reasonable person, could inflict considerable harm on an individual.

That Bill passed Second Stage just last week. With the support of the Committee on Justice and others in the House, I hope that legislation will be enacted by the end of the year. It would very much be in line with the timing of this legislation.

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