From reading the speech of the then Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Mervyn Taylor, on Second Stage in this House on 31 January 1996, it is apparent that the ex parte interim barring order was seen as a remedy for what were, in Mr. Taylor's words, "extreme cases". I refer here to cases where there is evidence that there is an immediate and serious risk of significant harm to an applicant or dependent person if the order is not made immediately and the court is satisfied that the granting of a protection order would not grant sufficient protection. It is known that the granting of interim orders ex parte rather than on notice became a more widespread practice rather than an exception, notwithstanding the existence of that express legislative provision. This happened because the criterion for the granting of an interim order in practice is that there would be an immediate risk of significant harm to an applicant or a dependant. Those are the circumstances that any court examining this matter would act upon and rely upon.