Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 59: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he has proposals to introduce legislation in the area of domestic violence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21614/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Comprehensive protection is already afforded to victims of domestic violence in our civil and criminal law statutes. The operation of the law on the protection of persons in relationships, whether through the operation of the Domestic Violence Acts 1996 and 2002 or otherwise, continues to be kept under review in my Department.

The protection provisions in the Domestic Violence Acts are substantial. The Acts make provision for the protection of a spouse and any children or other dependent persons, and of persons in other domestic relationships, whose safety or welfare requires it because of the conduct of another person in the domestic relationship concerned. A victim of such abuse may obtain a safety order under the Acts, requiring an abuser to desist from certain activity, a barring order excluding the abuser from the home in which the victim lives, or a protection order or interim barring order pending the determination by the courts of an application for a safety order or a barring order. Contravention of an order under the Acts is an offence and is subject to sanctions under the criminal law.

The Acts include substantial provision for victims of domestic violence who are not married to their abuser. A person may apply for a safety order if he or she has been living with a person as husband and wife for six months in aggregate of the previous twelve, and may apply for a barring order if he or she has been living with a person for six months in aggregate of the previous nine.

Amendments to the Domestic Violence Acts are proposed in the General Scheme of the Civil Partnership Bill which I published on 24 June 2008. These proposals extend to same-sex couples who register as civil partners the protections of the Domestic Violence Acts available to spouses. In relation to cohabitants, the Scheme provides for amendment of the Acts by removing the requirement of a minimum duration of cohabitation in order to obtain a safety order or a barring order, and ensuring that the law applies equally to same-sex cohabitants as it does to opposite-sex cohabitants.