Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Fine Gael group I welcome this legislation. I think it makes absolute sense. The offence of coercive control being outside the canon of offences that are included in the sex offenders register does not really make sense, so it is entirely appropriate that they would be brought in under that.

I know colleagues will agree that of all people, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, has been incredibly effective in bringing through legislation in this area. She has introduced legislation to protect citizens, particularly women, and the offences that they are more exposed to than society in general. I know that she will also be committed to bringing this legislation through.

Coercive control has been an offence in Ireland since 1 January 2019. I am very proud that it was a Government led by a party that I am part of that brought about that legislative change. It is something that we as a society have had to come to terms with, because I am not sure that most Irish people understood what coercive control was or how pervasive and damaging it is. The point was made that obviously there is a defined victim in the case of coercive control, but what we frequently fail to recognise is that we are all victims at a different level and that society as a whole suffers when something like coercive control is allowed to go on, is not challenged and the perpetrators of coercive control are not brought to justice.

The example of Jennifer Poole has been brought up. I acknowledge the presence of her brother. I have two sisters and I cannot imagine what it must have been like for her family to go through what they went through. I agree with what my colleagues have said. The graphic nature of her case, which we also saw on the news, brought home to us just how appalling an offence this is and how much damage it can do to an individual, a family and to anyone around them. I welcome this Bill as well on that basis.

It is a great idea to refer to it as Jennie's law. We did have a provision earlier in this session where we passed Coco's law. It was not properly called Coco's law because I think the Department of Justice was kind of opposed to the notion of putting a name like that on it and so it is in the explanatory memorandum to the Act, rather than as part of the Act. It may have ultimately found its way into the definition. I do not think Jennie's law is mentioned in the Bill, but I would certainly support an amendment on Committee Stage whereby we would add it in to the citation section, section 10. It is appropriate to recognise where this legislation is coming from because it puts it in the context that we all need to understand.

In terms of the sex offenders register, it is also important for people to understand that there is not a big ledger somewhere where all the sex offenders are listed. What we are talking about here is not the idea that somebody's name goes in a book and it is put on a dusty shelf in Garda HQ or wherever it is, this is about putting obligations on people who have committed offences like this and then, by extension, making that information available to people who might potentially be future victims of those people. That is appropriate. It is also proportionate, which is very important as well because we know that in the context of much of the sex offenders register legislation, there were calls, for example, for these registers to be publicly available so everybody could look up and see if a paedophile, mar dhea, is living in their area or somebody has been convicted of a particular type of offence is living next door to them. That creates other knock-on problems in terms of vigilantism and all the rest. What is in this Bill is a very nuanced proposal that allows somebody in a particular circumstance to seek information that may be of assistance in saving their life. Let us be honest: that is really what it is about. It is not a small thing, but it is fair, proportionate and nuanced. It is not broad or wide, it is focused. I think that is what makes it acceptable, reasonable, and functional. I welcome that as well.

I am slightly confused by the provisions in section 7 because I thought it was section 39 of the Domestic Violence Act 2018 that defines coercive control. I wonder if it would have been easier to amend the Schedule of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 to include coercive control as a defined or scheduled sex offence. However, these are just drafting points, what is most important is that there is a recognition of the fact that we have seen coercive control cases in Ireland. I do not want to use the word "damaging" again, but they are so appalling because they attack a person in the place where they should be safest - in their relationship and in their home and they destroy that, as well as the other knock-on consequences that we know happened in the case of the death of Jennifer Poole. It is about identifying that it is already an offence, but it is also now about putting that extra safeguard in place for people who might be in a similar situation to someone like Jennifer Poole, who might now be able to get information that could save their lives.

I congratulate my colleagues, Senators O'Loughlin and Clifford-Lee, on bringing forward this Private Members' Bill. I hope it will continue through the Houses and become law as quickly as possible. I welcome the provisions on behalf of the Fine Gael group and I wish the Bill well on its way.