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

Not at all. I suggest that we should go even further and that there are other areas that have been brought to our attention that need to be included.

I understand from where Senator Black is coming. I have just come from a family justice forum where we spoke about the family justice system and how abuse can continue into the courts. It is no different when we are speaking about these types of orders. We cannot remove a person's ability to be heard. A garda can come in on behalf of a person where an order is put in place for eight days and people can seek an order for a longer period of time. With regard to the idea that people would seek a civil restraining order without the ability for a person to set out the other side of things, we have to look at the fact that in a small number of cases the person seeking the order could be the person abusing and could be using it as another way to get at an individual. We must always allow people to provide their side of the story, to put it in simple terms.

At the same time, it is very much up to the judge to decide whether this is something to be applied and whether there needs to be an amendment. An example given to me involved two people in university with an order that someone must stay away from the other person's place of education. If it then transpires the other person is in the same university, is there a way for the judge to listen to see how the order can be applied? We are not speaking about criminalising a person. This is about trying to stop behaviour. It should not impact on their ability to go to school.

There are a number of different ways we have to look at this. It is about making sure a person can get an immediate safeguard but we cannot take away the other person's right to explain. There might be another side to the story. It is more likely this will be in the minority of cases but for those cases it is very important that people have their say.