David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have listened very carefully to what the Senators have had to say. It is very clear that a definition of domestic violence is complex and lengthy. Senators will agree it is difficult to be inclusive of all behaviours because it is difficult to anticipate the ingenuity of the human mind to devise new ways to inflict cruelty on others. That is one thing.

I draw Senators' attention to line 33 on page 8 of the Bill. This is repeated for the different orders and states:

Where the court, on application to it, is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the safety or welfare of an applicant or a dependent person so requires, it may, subject to section 11, by order (in this Act referred to as a “safety order”) prohibit the respondent to the application from doing one or more of the following:

We have a very broad definition in there. It covers everything - safety and welfare. The amendments seek to be more prescriptive by having a list. I have a completely open mind on this. Senator Norris made the point that obviously it is mainly women who are impacted by violence of this kind and only a small number of men. I remember a very interesting presentation to the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality on the issue of controlling behaviour, grooming of victims, etc. It was really frightening stuff.

There can be a risk of counterclaims of domestic violence and especially of coercive control being made by perpetrators to undermine the victim's case. I also ask Senators to reflect on the difficulty of meeting the standard of proof required to secure criminal convictions, which is a different standard from that for civil convictions, as we know.

I will not promise to Senator Higgins that I will come back with a definition. However, we are seriously looking at the definitions of domestic violence and coercive control. If it is possible we will come back with some proposals and if the advice from the Office of the Attorney General and others is that is the way to go. I will not go down that route.

However, I point out that the Bill already contains a broad definition on page 8 and it continues in other sections also. I am sympathetic to the points made. Let us see how we can tease this out.

Report Stage is coming up; I am not sure when that will be. It obviously depends on when we finish Committee Stage and we need time between Committee Stage and Report Stage, especially for a Bill like this. We do not need a lot of time; I am as anxious as everybody else here to get this passed into law and it needs to go through the Dáil anyway. I ask Senators to reflect on the points I have just made and not to press the amendment because if we find issues with it, we will have to undo it later on which is even more difficult. It is easier to insert something that is correct from day 1 rather than change it later. The Senator should not press it at this time, but take my commitment that we are looking at it seriously. As requested, we will engage with Senators on the definition.