Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator O’Loughlin for tabling this issue specifically and more generally raising the issue of domestic violence and the work we are doing collectively to respond to it. We can all agree it is an issue that has not had the attention or focus it should have had for many years, but that is changing. While I will respond on a number of different fronts to the Senator's questions, I will say from the outset, having met Jason Poole and discussed the tragic circumstances of his sister's death - she was a beautiful young woman who should not have been killed in the way she was - I have asked this to be examined as a priority and that is ongoing.

In response to the Senator's last question about how we are supporting An Garda Síochána and how we are responding to this issue more generally, I published our most ambitious strategy to date on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence at the beginning of June this year. It is a whole-of-government strategy and is based very clearly on the four key pillars, namely, prevention, protection, prosecution and policy co-ordination. I assure this House and anyone else listening that our zero tolerance strategy is not the end achievement to our work in this area; it is just the start.

We hosted European counterparts last month at the Council of Europe ministerial conference on violence against women, and I explained to some of my colleagues exactly what we mean by "zero tolerance".It means ensuring that strategies aimed at preventing and combating violence against women also address the specific role of men and boys in preventing violence. Zero tolerance means greater education and greater awareness to change attitudes and to teach respect from an early age. It means teaching our children equality, respect and healthy sexuality, again making sure that it is done in an age appropriate way. It means supporting victims with compassion and with care when they come forward and when they take what is an extremely brave step in coming forward and seeking help. It means effective training for all relevant professionals, including our medical professions, our legal professions, our doctors, our nurses, our Judiciary and so many others, in particular our gardaí. It means recognising the importance of long-term and systematic changes that need to happen and that is why there is a huge amount of structural changes happening within Government in terms of where services in the future will be provided and the establishment of a domestic violence agency.

It also means having robust legislation in place and Senator O'Loughlin mentioned the fact that the individual in question had served time for a previous offence against a partner. To make sure that we have effective sentencing, what I brought forward the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022 is an increase in the maximum sentence of assault causing harm from five years to ten years, and it passed through the Second Stage last week. We have seen too many cases where victims have had bones broken and where, as I mentioned before, sugar and boiling water thrown over them and where they have been stabbed, but the sentence has not been high enough because the bar has not been high enough. We need to make sure those options are there for the Judiciary. It also means making sure we tackle human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The fundamental weapon we have in combating domestic violence is prevention. It is the core pillar on which our strategy is built but it is prevention that is in mind today when we talk about this topic. When Jason Poole talks about a register, it is with prevention in mind. We cannot change what has happened to Jennifer, unfortunately, but we can make sure insofar as we possibly can that this does not happen to another person, to another young woman. That is obviously what we all want to achieve here.

As I mentioned, setting up a domestic violence register was something I discussed with Jason Poole when we met earlier this year. I have spoken to him in the last few days. We have discussed this with Garda Commissioner Harris. I have had a number of conversations with the Garda Commissioner and we agreed that it should be included in the third national strategy as a priority for in-depth analysis and consideration. As Senator O'Loughlin will know, it is a key action in the strategy published in June. I have continued to engage with the Garda Commissioner on this matter, as recently as last week, and I am awaiting a report on this matter. It is important that I do not move ahead on something without understanding how it works in other jurisdictions, how it might possibly work here and the views and potential approaches of the people who are due to implement it. Simply importing a model from another jurisdiction with a different constitutional arrangement to our own, where we have a written Constitution and judicial oversight of the Oireachtas in our work on enacting legislation, runs a risk of potential challenges and also that it might not work in the same way. While there is a register in some areas of the UK, we have to look at how that would potentially work here. We do not want something to be challenged.

We also have other complications around the fact that we have European General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, legislation that we need to comply with. We need to ensure there is no situation where a person could be falsely identified. All of these things have to be thought through. However, I stress there should never be a situation where someone's personal privacy overrides another person's right to be safe. I have always had that to the forefront of anything I do.

The Department of Justice is funding the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and the National Women’s Council to undertake research to identify and address issues arising from the interface between civil and criminal courts, where there might be a criminal trial happening where a person has attacked a partner and where there might be a civil trial happening where they are then seeking access to a child and maintenance. I am informed that the question of a register has been raised in that draft report and once I get that report and the report from the gardaí, we will see how the two could potentially work together. Instead of replicating something that might work in the courts, we will look how we could maybe merge the two together.

I reassure Senator O'Loughlin that work is ongoing with the Garda Commissioner and his team and with the specific family justice oversight group and on the work that has been commissioned by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and the National Women's Council of Ireland. I hope once I get the two of those we will be able to pave a pathway forward.