Results 5,861-5,880 of 11,695 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome all those in the Gallery from SAFE Ireland, Women's Aid and other organisations which have been of great help to us in the interim. Much has happened since 4 July when the House last debated Committee Stage. I am delighted that discussion on this Stage of this important Bill has resumed. All of us want its passage through the Houses expedited. I do not propose to spend a long...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I should have welcomed the Minister of State to the House. He is very welcome back. I thank him and his officials for the engagement we have had on these issues since the last time the matter was discussed here. I think we all very much welcome the two new Government amendments, namely, amendments Nos. 47a and 47b. We recognise that they go a long way to meeting many of the concerns we...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: That is extremely helpful and I thank the Minister of State on behalf of all my colleagues. We appreciate his engagement, particularly as it is on the floor of the House, which is most unusual and we really welcome it. I am certainly willing to accept the Minister of State's assurance and his support for amendment No. 6. I am happy to work with the Minister of State and his officials on...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 6:In page 8, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “Factors to be considered by court in certain applications under this Part 5. (1) Where a court is deciding, on an application for an order under sections 6 to 10, whether there are reasonable grounds for believing that the safety or welfare of an applicant or a dependent person requires that an order...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I support the Minister's amendments in this group, which are hugely important in strengthening the language and changing the practice in court in terms of requiring the making of orders rather than leaving it to the discretion of the court. I wonder if there is any way of drafting amendment No. 36 to meet the concerns the Minister raised about tying the court's hands in procedural matters....

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: These amendments are straightforward. They all address separate elements of the issue of urgent messages regarding children and they all seek to do the same thing. The Labour Party amendment is amendment No. 54 and it proposes what is sought in the other amendments but in a simpler and more straightforward way.

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I think that can be done.

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 19:In page 16, to delete lines 18 to 20 and substitute the following:“(11) An application for an emergency barring order—(a) may be made ex parte where, having regard to the circumstances of the particular case, the court considers it necessary or expedient to do so in the interests of justice, and (b) may, where the court is of the opinion that the...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I listened carefully to the Minister of State's point about the out-of-hours service. It points to an issue at the heart of the difficulty with our law on domestic violence, which is that it operates at the intersection of criminal and civil law. Having practised criminal law, I am familiar with the on-call judge system which operates for criminal cases but, as we discussed on the last...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I will withdraw it, but I reserve the right to resubmit it on Report Stage.

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: The amendments in this group seek to achieve the same aim, which is to allow emergency barring orders to have a somewhat increased length. Amendment No. 23 in my name would extend the length of time that an emergency barring order could last from eight working days, which is less than two weeks, to 20 working days, which is effectively four weeks. We view this as a reasonable extension that...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I have listened to all of the Minister's points and I am looking very carefully at section 8. Clearly it is very welcome to see this provision in place. I see that section 8, subsection (16) specifically states that no further emergency barring orders shall be made against the respondent on behalf of the same applicant until a month has elapsed after the last day of the period of eight...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 23:In page 16, line 37, to delete “8 working” and substitute “20 working”. I reserve the right to move this amendment on Report Stage.

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I take the point of the Minister of State and support Senator Norris. As I said, there is a concern that prosecutions for breaches of barring orders and so on often involve people who stack up convictions for such an offence, yet because none is a serious offence they cannot be denied bail if charged with a further offence on the basis that they may commit a serious offence. There is a...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I wish to add my congratulations to the Minister of State. I thank him and his officials for engaging constructively with us and on bringing forward this ground-breaking new offence of control. I commend Senator Kelleher on all her work as well. The result is great to see. I have no wish to get up again on amendment No. 47b, but I note that it takes account of many of the arguments we...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Criminal Prosecutions Data (23 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I am pleased the Minister of State is present to deal with this question, given his long-standing commitment to the issue of prostitution law reform. It was a pleasure to work with him on the justice committee on the important reform we introduced in 2017 to change our focus as regards prostitution and to criminalise or the purchaser. The question I am asking relates to the previous law. I...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Criminal Prosecutions Data (23 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the Minister of State for the information he has provided and for the tables of data which I will go through with great interest. I also thank him for his kind comments. I note, as the Minister of State said, this is an ongoing issue and I thank him in particular for speaking in a little more detail about the requirement in the 2017 Act for a report after a three year period on the...

Seanad: Judicial Council Bill 2017: Second Stage (22 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Minister to the House, and I welcome this important and long-overdue Bill. Like others, I express my support and that of the Labour Party group for the Bill. I look forward to teasing out the proposals in it on Second Stage, and also on Committee and Report Stages. As we know, the Bill will introduce for the first time a formalised system for the public to make complaints...

Seanad: Judicial Council Bill 2017: Second Stage (22 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I shall now turn to the issue of the sanctions and the refusals. With regard to the reprimand or admonishment, for clarification the reprimand is something that happens at an earlier stage and an admonishment is at the conclusion of an investigation. Section 58 covers where there is failure or refusal by a judge to co-operate and the panel of inquiry makes a report to the judicial conduct...

Seanad: Judicial Council Bill 2017: Second Stage (22 Nov 2017)

Ivana Bacik: There is provision that hearings may be held in private, or otherwise than in public, where it would be appropriate in the circumstances. That would be an appropriate amendment and I thank the Minister for his time.