Government amendment No. 35:

The purpose of this amendment is to provide for a statutory requirement for courts to give reasons for decisions relating to applications for orders under the Bill. SAFE Ireland recommended that the reasons for making or not making an order under the Domestic Violence Bill and for making it subject to conditions, if any, should all be recorded by the court and a copy of these reasons should be made available to each party with the minimum of delay. This amendment proposes to insert a new section into the Bill to require courts to give reasons for decisions to grant or refuse applications for orders, including reasons for a decision relating to exceptions or conditions to which an order is subject. The question of whether the District Court should be required to give written reasons for decisions was considered earlier this year in the course of debates on the Criminal Justice Act 2017. Section 9 of the Act has introduced a requirement for courts to give reasons for bail decisions, but does not require written reasons for bail decisions. This is because written decisions are not the norm in the District Court and the volume of work involved in implementing a requirement for written reasons could be considerable. It would have cost implications and, more importantly, could entail delays in the processing of cases before the court. As all District Court proceedings are recorded on the digital audio recording system, in circumstances where clarification of the reasons given is required or is in dispute, there will be a record of the proceedings. For the same reasons, I would not favour requiring written reasons for decisions relating to applications for orders under the Domestic Violence Bill.