Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

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 applicant or a dependent child may be at risk of immediate harm, be made by telephone or electronic means, subject to the applicant’s undertaking to swear a grounding affidavit or information as soon as is reasonably practicable.”

This group of amendments seeks to deal with the same issue, namely, to ensure there is out-of-hours access to the courts for victims and survivors of domestic abuse. It is an issue that has been raised by quite a number of groups and NGOs working with victims of domestic violence. Women's Aid says that a significant gap in the proposed legislation is a lack of measures to provide for immediate protection in an emergency situation when the courts are not sitting. It points out that while gardaí may arrest a perpetrator, he will be usually granted station bail within a few hours and a woman, often with children, in the absence of immediate protection, will have no option often but to leave the family home. Women's Aid has suggested ensuring access through an on-call judge to out-of-hours barring orders service. That is what all of these amendments seek to do.

Amendment No. 19 in my name simply states that an application for an emergency barring order may be made ex parte in certain circumstances and may be made by telephone or electronic means. I am conscious that the other Senators have sought to achieve the same aim in their amendments.

I am happy to withdraw my own amendment in the interests of having consolidated support for one of the other amendments. I hope the Minister of State would see fit to come some way to meeting us on this issue.

A related issue was raised by a practising lawyer, to whom I am grateful, who talks about a real problem with bail. Because of breaches of section 17(1) of the Domestic Violence Act 1986 is a summary only offence, there is no possibility for an objection to bail on grounds that a serious offence may be committed while on bail, because it does not constitute a serious offence. That exacerbates this problem of lack of access to emergency protection, where somebody has a series of convictions under section 17(1), that still will not be grounds for a garda to object to bail or indeed for a judge to refuse bail, because none of the series of offences will be a serious offence in itself. That illustrates the problem for individuals, particularly for those in a situation out of hours seeking emergency protection.