Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the Order of Business as outlined by the Deputy Leader. I am delighted to welcome my mum. It is her first time in the Seanad. It is great to have her here for a short period.

Last Saturday should have been Jennifer Poole's 26th birthday. She was a lovely, vivacious young woman with two children. Sadly, her life was taken from her in April last year. This should not have happened. On Saturday, her brother, Jason, joined Deputy Jim O'Callaghan and me to talk about the horrific trauma that his family suffered when Jennifer's life was taken from her in seven minutes by a former partner who was known for domestic violence. The main reason that we had this conversation was to try to ensure that a register of domestic abuse offenders would be set up. Jennifer had the courage and conviction to finish the relationship. Many people are not able to finish a relationship but Jennifer was. Afterwards, the fact that he had been in jail for two and a half years for a previous domestic violence offence came out. If there was a domestic violence register in the same way that there is a sexual abusers register, there is no doubt that the gardaí and Jennifer would have been aware, and she would not have got into that situation. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan has suggested that a domestic violence register be opened in this country. I think it would be important. I ask the Deputy Leader to see if the Minister for Justice will come in so we can have a debate on that in this House.

I want to raise an issue regarding the Adoption Authority of Ireland. The new system opened on 3 October to facilitate people who were adopted. They can provide their information to try to ensure that they can trace their parents. More than 400 applications were made on Monday. It has been a long, difficult and emotional road for many people. I pay tribute to the tireless advocates and to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, for delivering on this commitment. Since Monday, adopted people, those who were boarded out or had their birth illegally registered have been able to apply for full information about their birth or early lives. It is anticipated that up to 150,000 people will be able to access their full information. It is important that we ask for this to be done in a timely fashion. In six months, we should ask the Minister to come to the House to give information about the statistics at that point.

I congratulate two men on what they have achieved. The first is Eric Donovan from Athy, County Kildare, who has become European boxing champion. He has overcome great adversity in his life. He is an icon for supporting people to get over issues such as mental health and addiction, and dreaming and achieving big dreams. I also congratulate Fintan Bray. It is Down's syndrome month. Fintan Bray was elected to the Fianna Fáil ard comhairle on Saturday. It is the first time that anybody with an intellectual disability has been elected to high office in any political party in Ireland. It is worth marking that here.