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

I thank the Senators for the debate and for putting forward the amendments. I draw Senators' attention to the emergency barring order provided for in section 8 of the Bill, which I argue is a very innovative provision that allows an applicant with no ownership of a property or a lesser share than the respondent to have the respondent barred from the property for up to eight working days. An emergency barring order may be granted ex parte, meaning that only the applicant is present for the application. The interests of justice demand that the court has the opportunity to assess the demeanour of the applicant face to face. Allowing an email or phone application would not be appropriate or proportionate given the seriousness of the consequences for the person barred from his or her property. Allowing applications to be made by telephone or email, where it would be difficult to verify the identity of the applicant, could give rise to malicious applications by third parties.

In cases where there is an immediate risk of harm, I understand that urgent applications for domestic violence orders are dealt with as a priority by the Courts Service. The Courts Service has advised me that, in most cases, applicants for domestic violence orders are willing to wait until the next court sitting. In exceptional circumstances, a judge can be accessed out of hours through An Garda Síochána. There are two distinct situations in which applications are heard outside normal court hours. In the first situation, the application is made where the court office is open but the court itself has risen for the day or is not sitting on that day. There is not always a court sitting each day in each district outside of larger cities. In these cases, the applicant is asked whether he or she believes it would be safe to wait a day or two until a court sitting is available. It is reported as rare that the applicant cannot safely wait until the next day. In some extreme cases, it may be apparent that a delay could put the applicant or dependent children in grave danger. In these cases, the clerk of the court will contact the judge assigned for the district, or another judge if the first is unavailable, and explain the gravity of the application. The judge will decide whether it warrants a special sitting. The Courts Service has reported that it has no record of a judge refusing to sit when requested.

The Courts Service of Ireland records data on out-of-hours sittings in criminal proceedings but no data are yet available on the civil proceedings for a protection order or an interim barring order at special sittings. These are the orders that would be sought under this Bill with regard to immediate danger. I have more notes on this but I believe I have made a substantive point. I am told there have been a handful of occasions where An Garda Síochána has made known to an on-call clerk a potential domestic violence application and on one occasion, a solicitor contacted the clerk directly. In these cases special sittings were arranged. There is provision and practice already to deal with the Senators' concerns. Requests received outside office hours are much rarer as members of the public cannot contact a court clerk directly. However, in every district, there is a clerk on call to take requests for special sittings from An Garda Síochána, almost invariably for criminal matters.