Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am indicating that we intend to look further at how we can refine the civil and criminal interactions, as we discussed earlier in the Seanad. I do not want to pre-empt those considerations but it is what we intend to do. Everything we are doing with this legislation, in other legislation we are bringing forward and everything we do under the zero tolerance strategy for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is about supporting the victim and the victim's journey. There are a number of ways to go about that. There are civil levers and criminal levers. As I tried to outline in my response to the Deputy's amendment, we are looking at how we can support the victim in every way and I would hate it to be interpreted in any other way. How the civil and criminal interact is valid and important and we will look further in Seanad Éireann at how we can refine it.

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