Pauline Tully
Cultural and Educational Panel · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I acknowledge that there have been huge improvements on what is available for women, compared with a few years ago when there was nothing, but still far too often conditions affecting women are seen as a specialty or mystery when there is a range of supports and advice that women could receive through primary and community care services.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad. I welcome the Bill. We will be fully supporting it. It makes sense. It will reduce barriers for women and make access to contraception easier, which is always going to be welcome. It will also ease pressure on primary care.”
“We need to look at a better public transport system, especially looking after our older people in isolated communities. Even to support our rural pub, we need to look at some sort of incentive for a taxi service that is affordable for people, so we can maintain our rural pubs and look after our older people.”
“Community and voluntary services on the ground, which are vital for providing supports and services to many sectors of the community, including older people and younger people, are not seeing sufficient funding to help them to keep running, to recruit and retain staff within the youth sector, for example, to maintain buildings if they hav…”
“The motion that we have put forward is very broad and covers many aspects that affect us in rural life. I too am astounded by the amendment tabled by the Government because it does not call for anything, which gives the impression that everything that is needed is there, yet many colleagues across the room here ask for more gardaí in thei…”
“Sláintecare is being rolled out too slowly, so we need to see proper resourcing of community healthcare. It avoids people ending up in acute healthcare settings, which are overcrowded. I see a dangerous trend where many people are being referred from areas such as Cavan and Monaghan to Dublin for acute care.”
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“I acknowledge that there have been huge improvements on what is available for women, compared with a few years ago when there was nothing, but still far too often conditions affecting women are seen as a specialty or mystery when there is a range of supports and advice that women could receive through primary and community care services. A structured approach is needed to drive improvements in care for women in their local communities. Sinn Féin has proposed a structured women's healthcare scheme in primary care, which would include general practice, pharmacy, nursing and allied primary care professions. The scheme would ensure appropriate support for women and girls at every stage of their life. Current services and supports are somewhat disjointed and can be costly. I welcome the Bill and will be supporting it.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad. I welcome the Bill. We will be fully supporting it. It makes sense. It will reduce barriers for women and make access to contraception easier, which is always going to be welcome. It will also ease pressure on primary care. It is a welcome step in the expansion of community pharmacy and women’s healthcare services. The free contraception scheme is still limited to women aged 17 to 35. The scheme should be reformed to cover all hormone therapy for all women and girls from adolescence through to and beyond menopause, and not restricted to those within certain age brackets. Women's health is not embedded as a core service across primary and community care services.”
“I note that the north and western region of Ireland is ranked something like 218th out of 234 EU regions for transport infrastructure, which I already talked about. That is very concerning. There is a lack of investment and public funding, and we need to see far more investment in those areas. The M3, for example, comes from Dublin to the Cavan-Meath border and stops. We have a bottleneck at Virginia and have been waiting for a Virginia bypass for over 26 years. We will have to wait another few years if it happens this time. There are many issues in this motion. I am amazed that the Government is opposing it. It could have accepted it and added to it if necessary. I am amazed.”
“Community and voluntary services on the ground, which are vital for providing supports and services to many sectors of the community, including older people and younger people, are not seeing sufficient funding to help them to keep running, to recruit and retain staff within the youth sector, for example, to maintain buildings if they have them, and to pay rent if they have not. Transport is an issue that young people bring up with me all the time too. They cannot get to these youth services if they do not have sufficient transport. The motion is wide-ranging. It raises many different issues. We want it to be addressed and kept on the agenda. We want to see a proper, updated policy put in place to ensure that rural communities remain vibrant. Rural Ireland is a good place to live but we need to make sure that it remains as such.”
“Sláintecare is being rolled out too slowly, so we need to see proper resourcing of community healthcare. It avoids people ending up in acute healthcare settings, which are overcrowded. I see a dangerous trend where many people are being referred from areas such as Cavan and Monaghan to Dublin for acute care. There is a lack of specialist services in the rural areas. We need to see our hospitals maintained in rural areas. There is a lack of capacity in childcare services, which is causing a huge problem. There are about 40,000 children on a waiting list for childcare services. There was supposed to be investment in derelict buildings, of which we see many in our towns and villages, to repurpose them as community childcare facilities. I do not see any movement on that. That needs to be looked at and invested in.”
“We need to look at a better public transport system, especially looking after our older people in isolated communities. Even to support our rural pub, we need to look at some sort of incentive for a taxi service that is affordable for people, so we can maintain our rural pubs and look after our older people. Regarding health, in my local village of Kilnaleck, there was always a GP service. We have lost it. There is another sizeable village in Cavan, Ballyhaise, which has a lovely health centre. A lovely health centre in Kilnaleck is idle, and there is no doctor or service in the one in Ballyhaise. The HSE is using it for administrative purposes. The people want to see a GP service in their local area. We need to see far more GPs in our communities. We need to have them in our rural communities too and not have people travel all the time.”
“We have very wet weather for some parts of the year, which we have witnessed already, and now we have extremely hot weather which is melting the tar. We will have to expect this type of weather for the next few years. We need to plan for that and we need to ensure that we invest in our roads and they are built to last through the different types of weather conditions that we have. Regarding rural transport, I was talking to an older woman in Shercock on Saturday. She had an appointment in Monaghan hospital. She had no option but to get a taxi from Shercock to Monaghan hospital and back. It cost her €250. For an old age pensioner who is depending on her pension, she had barely enough to just buy a few groceries after that.”
“We are a region without a rail service and we are dependent on our roads. We have public transport in the form of buses. There are sometimes problems with them but generally it is a good service. We are seeing an improving Local Link service all the time, with more and more routes being added, which is great and I welcome that. The national and regional roads are in generally reasonable condition but the rural roads are a disaster. I have called a number of times for the Minister for Transport, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to come in here and debate the funding that he gives to rural roads in Cavan, in particular, and how it compares with other counties relative to the size of the county, and he has not done that. I see the roads around me and they are disintegrating. The weather is not helping.”
“We should be looking at investing in and putting in proper infrastructure for wind energy and our solar panels. I echo the call that we need updated wind energy development guidelines. We also need to work with communities. It should not just be a foreign company coming in here and providing the infrastructure then taking all the profits. We need to see investment by the State in community wind energy, working with communities, and offshore too, to ensure that we can provide our own energy, get away from using fossil fuel and away from our dependence on oil and gas that is coming in from other countries. Many times here, I have raised the condition of the roads in Cavan. Cavan is a very rural county. It is a Border county. There is no rail service to Cavan, Monaghan or Donegal.”
“They want to put solar panels on their sheds or on their farm buildings, not over agricultural land but on farm buildings. They have to provide additional slurry. There are new regulations coming in by 2028. If we do not do that, we as a country will face fines of billions for not reaching our targets in reducing emissions by 2030. Why can we not just find the money somewhere? It is better to borrow it and invest in our young farmers or farming sector and ensure that we do not end up having to pay fines, which is dead money to me, when it could be invested in making sure that our farms are viable and we keep people working that family farm. We pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe, possibly worldwide, and that is having a huge impact on households, businesses and our farms.”
“We need a properly funded and robust succession scheme to ensure that the family farm can continue. We have a worldwide reputation for the production of good-quality food that is traceable from farm to fork. We will lose that if it becomes part of an intensive farm without our country. We also need to incentivise younger farmers who want to farm but do not feel it is possible. There are some good schemes. The targeted agricultural modernisation schemes are good. They encourage people to farm in an efficient, environmentally friendly manner, but the money is not behind them at the moment. Out of ten farmers who get approval for the increased slurry scheme or solar scheme, only one is being given the grant, and the money is just not there. Farmers want to use solar.”
“The motion that we have put forward is very broad and covers many aspects that affect us in rural life. I too am astounded by the amendment tabled by the Government because it does not call for anything, which gives the impression that everything that is needed is there, yet many colleagues across the room here ask for more gardaí in their local area, increased childcare, more supports for roads and transport and so on. I am amazed by it. I live in rural Ireland and grew up in it, on a small farm, where my parents were able to rear a family of ten without having to work off-farm. That is not possible any more. We are facing a real crisis in farming, especially in family farming, if we do not deal with the age profile of our farmers. One third of our farmers are over 65 in this country and only 4.3% of them are under 35.”
“If the consultation was arranged by the consultant based in Belfast but he arranged it in Monaghan, probably to save them having to travel the whole way to Belfast, then it should not be taken out on the family that required the operation. I want this to be highlighted to the Minister for Health and the HSE because I do not think it is appropriate.”
“The consultant arranged that consultation in Monaghan; it was nothing to do with the family. He is based in Belfast and that is where he carried out the surgery. He has frequently carried out initial consultations with patients in Monaghan and there has never been an issue before. She is really upset. She said she is delighted the operation has been carried out because her son was in so much pain and it was really successful, but she feels this needs to be highlighted because others could fall into this trap as well. She has appealed the decision and the HSE has refused to reimburse her. She may take it further to the ombudsman but it is for others as well.”
“A lot of us here are familiar with the cross-Border scheme or the Northern Ireland planned healthcare. It is an option for people who are on public waiting lists for health procedures to use a different jurisdiction to have that procedure carried out in a more timely fashion. I was recently contacted by the mother of a two-year-old boy who was in a lot of pain and required an operation. The waiting list here was years long so they opted to have the operation carried out in Belfast. She followed the HSE guidelines, got a referral from the GP, sought a consultant in Belfast and the operation was carried out. It was very successful but when she sought reimbursement from the HSE she was refused because the HSE said the first appointment with the consultant from Belfast was held in Monaghan.”
“I have heard the same situation for people who are on disability allowance, where they might undertake a community employment, CE, scheme. They might come off the disability payment, do a CE scheme and really enjoy it as a chance to work, meet people and get out of the house. However, there are many now who do not want to take up the offer of a CE scheme because it takes so long once the CE scheme ends to get their disability payment back. I brought this up with the then Minister, Heather Humphreys, who said it should be seamless. I agree that it absolutely should be seamless but it is not. It still seems to be causing a problem. It is a pity to see people on these payments not taking up the opportunity to do a CE scheme or part-time work because of the fear that their payment will not be resumed in an expedient way.”
“It took three months for the payment to be made and their circumstances had not changed. I can understand the Department had to do a quick check and make sure things had not changed, but given that they had submitted everything and had previously applied for and been granted this payment, it should have been seamless to allow them to do the seasonal work for a number of weeks or months and then resume the payment. In the meantime they had no money, so they were borrowing off family members. It was taking so long and the Department was looking for extra information and arranging visits but not turning up for them. This person asked me to contact the Department, which I did and then the payment was granted. I am not saying it was not going to be granted anyway - maybe it was - but three months is far too long.”
“I too would like to extend a fáilte romhat to our dignitaries from France and wish them a happy Bastille Day. I want to raise an issue regarding social welfare payments. People on jobseeker's allowance or on farm assist may sometimes have to come off those payments if they receive some work. They may be working on a part-time basis, so they notify the Department of Social Protection and the payment is ceased. Sometimes the work, especially if it is seasonal, finishes up and when the person reapplies for the payment, the delay can be excessive. One person who recently contacted me has a small farm and was in receipt of farm assist. They had been doing seasonal work for a number of months and when that ceased, they contacted the Department and reapplied. That was in early April. It was not sanctioned until early July.”
“We need to use all of the tools we have to ensure we keep our children safe. The definition of pornographic content here may need to be tightened a little bit because some of it could apply to films with sexual activity or music videos and so on that are not pornographic but which do include sexual activity. Just because there is sexual activity in a music video or something on Netflix does not mean it is pornographic. We need to be able to distinguish these forms of content in the context of age verification. I fully support removing access to pornography for anyone under 18 years of age. It would be an incredible thing to achieve and it is really important. I hope this Bill can lead to doing that. Nobody would oppose anything that is going to protect our children.”
“We need to hold the media companies responsible for what they are doing. As Senator Rabbitte said, we need to hold the phone companies responsible as well. We are letting them off the hook. We need to have our regulations in place and we need to have the proper age verification but these companies need to take responsibility for the damage they are doing. Another recommendation in the report is to "fully incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Irish law." That is really important, not just in this context but across many different Departments in relation to child law. We need to strengthen our laws that protect children and provide them with the supports they need in life. It also recommends we enhance Coimisiún na Meán’s investigative powers. That is really important too.”
“Technology is moving so fast that legislation has to keep moving as fast as well. I know the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill is going through the Seanad at the moment. All of that is welcome but we need to make sure that all of these checks and balances are robust and ensure the proper age verification systems are put in place. I commend the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport on its recent report. I know it had much engagement with stakeholders. The committee on children was also doing work around keeping children safe online. It is important that one of the first recommendations in the report of the committee is to "require platforms to disable recommender algorithms entirely for children and by default for people over 18".”
“The Bill also states: The Minister shall prescribe a class of documents, or a combination of classes of documents, that is adequate to verify the age of each website user and which may be accepted for the purposes of fulfilling the age verification required under this section. I am not sure what documents can be used and why. Again, I am wary of what happened in relation to the public services card, where a huge fine was served for breaches of privacy rules relating to the use of facial recognition in the registration processes. There was a fine of €550,000 in that case. There are a few things there that may need further work and clarification. We do have our own legislation. We have the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 which established the new media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, and put in place an online safety code.”
“We have done quite a bit of work on this issue in higher education institutions too and sexual violence can be quite prevalent among a cohort there as well. We all want to do anything we can to protect our children and stop them accessing pornography. I am a little concerned about some of the detail within the Bill. One part states: Data that is collected and retained for the purpose of compliance with age verification requirements provided for under this Act shall be securely stored for a period of 5 years. I am concerned about having that much private information in one place. About two months ago, the EU age verification app was launched and it was hacked within two minutes. It was not safe. I am concerned about that.”
“She found that within 23 minutes of being created, fake teenage male accounts were served with misogynistic content without seeking it. That is scary. Young men are being targeted by some of these providers with unsuitable online content. Women's Aid did a survey called Evolving Manhood and found that two-in-five Irish men hold traditionalist views on gender but that rises to 67% among young men. This surveyed those aged 18 to 29 but I imagine it also affects young lads in their teenage years. This emphasises the importance of education by parents and guardians because they have a huge role to talk to their young people and explain to them what a healthy relationship is and what is certainly not healthy. This should also happen in an age-appropriate way in our schooling system and going into third level as well.”
“There has been a lot of discussion recently about how best to protect our young people, especially our under-18s, from certain social media sites and pornography. The statistics from Rape Crisis Ireland are very concerning when they talk about the rise of online misogyny and what they are calling the "manosphere". It is an international network of influencers promoting male supremacy and anti-feminist ideologies. That is connected closely to multinational corporations, which are only interested in making profit, have a total disregard for harm and have recommender algorithms to spread unsuitable content to everybody, particularly children, without caring about the harm it causes. There was research carried out recently by Professor Debbie Ging.”
“The Minister for Health needs to address the inefficiencies in Cavan General Hospital. I am concerned about the hospital and about patient care. I do not want to see the hospital undermined in any way. We are delighted to have a hospital in the county, but it has to be one we have trust in. I am calling on the Minister for Health to address the issues in Cavan General Hospital.”
“She has now been referred to community services but there are very long waiting list there. There was no referral for a second opinion. Even though this was mentioned, it was not actually done. Her notes to her GP were inaccurate and did not include some of the medication she was prescribed. She has now ended up on 20 tablets a day. An 18-year-old woman on 20 tablets a day is outrageous. Her notes talked about appointments made for her that she attended but she had not. Even the records around her care were not accurate. She has lost 10 kg in weight and has missed out on a year's school, including missing her leaving cert. It is not that the first time I have raised concerns about healthcare in Cavan General Hospital. The vast majority of staff are excellent. The hospital is under-resourced and under pressure.”
“She was discharged on a Friday, but had to be brought to hospital by ambulance the following Thursday and was readmitted for another four weeks. Of the last nine months, she has spent 18 weeks in hospital. She is vomiting, collapsing and very weak. When she was readmitted in May, she was put on a heart monitor because her heartbeat was erratic. Bloods were taken every day but she got no clear explanation as to why this was happening or what the right conclusion from the tests was. She collapsed several times while in hospital but this was not actually documented by the hospital. A dietitian was only notified of her condition on the day that she was being discharged. The dietician was very worried about her and said that she should have been peg fed for the time she was in hospital.”
“I want to raise the case of an 18-year-old woman living in Cavan. She was admitted to Cavan General Hospital in September 2025. She was 17 at the time and spent four weeks there with symptoms of vomiting, constant headaches and light sensitivity. One doctor thought it was chronic meningitis and talked about doing a lumbar puncture but other doctors disagreed. No procedure was carried out and no determination was made as to what was actually wrong. She was given antibiotics and sent home. She ended up back in hospital in November, this time for nine weeks, again with similar symptoms, only worse. She was very dizzy, collapsing and not able to keep food and liquids down. Again, no conclusions were reached and no adequate treatment was prescribed. She ended up being admitted in May for a week.”
“The 5% FEMPI cuts to allowances permanently suppressed the retirement baseline for anyone who left the service during the austerity era. I ask that the Minister for Defence addresses this issue without delay.”
“Lucy is on work experience. I wish to raise the issue of cuts to allowances for Reserve Defence Force members. Cuts were introduced in 2011 as part of austerity measures after the economic crash. The public sector was badly hit by quite severe cuts at the time. The Reserve Defence Force allowance was cut by 25% and it was taxed for the first time after that as well. This was severely felt by the members of the Reserve Defence Force. Many of the cuts implemented at that time have been reversed but the cut to the Reserve Defence Force allowance has not been and it should be. It has also impacted on those who have retired since then because military pensions and retirement gratuities are calculated directly as a percentage of a member's final salary and pensionable allowances at the date of retirement.”
“The justice committee, which is a cross-party committee, advocated a complete and unconditional ban on the use of counselling notes and the Minister chose to ignore that. We know in cases where they are seldom used by the prosecution, they are used by the defence in an attempt to undermine the victim. I am horrified that this practice was ever permitted but I cannot get past the fact that it may continue as well. We are just retraumatising survivors and it has to stop. If this was the Minister's relative - his daughter, sister or mother - would he want them to have to go through this? If this horrific event happened to them and they sought counselling to try to help to rebuild their lives and address their trauma, they should not have to listen to that in a courtroom. It is personal and private and it should not be used against them.”
“It is not a verbatim account. They are clinical records that are disjointed. They show how a person is feeling at one point in time. They can and have been misinterpreted. They have been used to imply inconsistency. They have been misleading and used to undermine a victim or survivor. They have been taken out of context and tried to be used to imply consent. I want to commend the survivors who are sitting with us in the Gallery today. As many have said, the violence is not just the act itself. The court process is so retraumatising, in particular where your notes - your own personal attempts to address what was done to you - are used against you to try to undermine you. It is just completely wrong. It is psychological harm. We have to protect victims and survivors. We have to ensure they are not harmed more than they have already been.”
“I want to speak in support of amendment No. 26 and any of the amendments that call for an outright ban on the use of counselling notes in cases of sexual violence and rape. If any of us knows a person who has been raped or sexually assaulted, they will know the life-changing and devastating impact it has. They will also know how vital counselling is in the context of trying to address the trauma, process what happened and put a devastated life back together. If these amendments are rejected, this legislation risks deterring survivors seeking counselling and therapy in circumstances where that help is much needed. The relationship between a therapist and a client should be confidential. What they discuss should be confidential. The relationship should be one of trust. It is not produced for the purpose of evidence.”
“It was a response to a crisis created by political choices and it was shaped by future political choices that did not serve the public well. As this Bill proceeds, Sinn Féin will engage constructively, but we will also be firm. The public deserves transparency and accountability.”
“They deserve to know whether better management, longer term planning or a different strategy could have delivered higher returns for the State. They deserve to know whether the decisions made were in the public interest or in the interests of expediency. The winding down of NAMA should not mean the winding down of accountability. The legacy of NAMA is the missed opportunities for social housing, the failure to use land strategically and the billions of euro lost to the taxpayer. It is the fact that public assets were sold off when they could have been used to deliver homes, communities and long-term public value. Sinn Féin will continue to demand answers and we will continue to challenge the narrative that NAMA was some kind of success story. It was not.”
“The CEO of NAMA stated in the Oireachtas that everything was done correctly, but the public deserves to see the full picture, warts and all. For this reason, an Teachta Doherty proposed a simple and reasonable amendment to this legislation. He asked for the production of a report on NAMA's performance, including whether higher rents could have been achieved had the property portfolio been managed for longer rather than sold off. That is all we asked for - transparency, accountability and a factual assessment of what happened. NAMA took on €74 billion in loans. It recovered €37 billion, less than half of that. That is a reality and it is why Sinn Féin pushed for a report. As NAMA is wound up, the public deserve to know how an agency that took on €74 billion in loans ended up recovering less than half of that.”
“The NAMA fire sale of assets was the prequel to the current housing disaster, and yet again we see soaring housing lists, rising homelessness and rents going up and up. Members of the Government have, in the past, spoken confidently about the State recovering all moneys owed on these loans. This did not happen. Tens of billions of euro were not recovered for the taxpayer. NAMA sold assets instead of managing them, and did so at a time when it did not seek to maximise value. That is the reality. I would not describe NAMA as a success. It facilitated the fire sale of a massive volume of Irish assets to vulture funds. The Comptroller and Auditor General stated that NAMA failed to meet its own targets in social housing and land disposal, yet we still hear attempts to defend the fire sale approach.”
“Sinn Féin will engage constructively with the Bill. We support the orderly winding down of NAMA, the completion of the IBRC process and the transfer of the remaining activities to the NTMA. However, let me clear that we will continue to demand accountability for the failures of the banking collapse and for the deeply damaging and flawed political choices that followed. Those choices cost people their homes, their livelihoods and their futures. Accountability cannot be brushed aside simply because an agency is being wound down. The Government would like to portray this as the successful conclusion of a dark chapter in history but it is not a conclusion. Ordinary citizens of this State continue to be impacted to this day.”
“They have many other asks to improve life in rural Ireland for young farmers. I have to say the president of Macra, Josephine O'Neill, is a very impressive young woman. We had a detailed conversation about all this. I would love to see a discussion with the Minister on the floor of the House about what we are going to do to address the age profile of the farmer in Ireland.”
“There is a partnership scheme where a farmer can pass on a farm to someone who is not related to him but Macra is calling for the removal of a three-year requirement for succession within that because it says it is acting as a barrier rather than an incentive. This is really important. We have to address it and it is not being addressed. I am aware it is an EU-wide issue as well. The age profile of farmers across the EU is quite high but in order to continue the production of high-quality food, we need to see the family farm thrive rather than going to corporate farming options. Macra has called for other things, such as priority investment in targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, TAMS, 3 for young farmers because that will encourage efficiency, drive economic growth and create environmental benefits.”
“Ireland has a good reputation for the production of high-quality food, achieved primarily on our family farms where there is traceability from farm to fork, but this is dependent on the continuation of the family farm. That is in danger because of the age profile of our farmers. I attended a briefing by Macra last week and some stark statistics were provided. Over one third of Irish farmers are over 65 years of age. Forty per cent have no identified successor, with 20% having no successor at all. Only 4.3% of our farmers are under 35 years of age. Macra is calling for a number of measures to address this, but one of them is a succession scheme. It has called for this for a long time. However, it wants one that works well and will encourage the farmer to pass on the farm to a family member or to enter into partnership.”
“While looking at this issue I came across something that says that in some circumstances, a person diagnosed with dementia may qualify for the long-term illness scheme. I cannot understand why it applies in some instances. It is either on the scheme or is not; we must not pick and choose between people. It should be clear-cut that it is included in the scheme so people can apply for it with the diagnosis and are given it. I ask that we have a discussion on this and health in general in this Chamber, because we have not had one in a while. There is the issue of the long-term illness card, the issue Senator Collins raised around the ambulance service and other issues I raised around acute healthcare. There is a long list of issues on health we should debate.”
“I was contacted recently by a person I have known for a long time but had not spoken to in some time. She was telling me how her husband has been diagnosed with dementia. It is progressing quite rapidly to the stage where she has realised she needs additional help to care for him. In the midst of this, her GP advised her to apply for the long-term illness card, which she did. However, she was refused because dementia is not included on the long-term illness scheme. It really should be. It is a life-long lasting condition, there is not cure and it is progressive. It can develop a quite an early age. People can develop early onset dementia even in their 50s. We should contact the Minister and ask for this to be looked at. I do not think the list or scheme has been updated in some time and maybe it should be.”
“I welcome this legislation. It is very important. I acknowledge Jason Poole and his family for their advocacy. They have gone through a terrible, traumatic event in their lives, as have so many other families. Unfortunately, the statistics this week show that the problem is still systemic. It is widespread. The more legislation that can be drafted and passed to address the issues of domestic violence, the better. I commend the Minister on bringing forward the Bill so quickly. We will all work together to try and get it through as quickly as possible. The Bill is very welcome.”
“That is the proposal, to include that "the safety and wellbeing of the victim, including any risk of intimidation, retaliation or further harm" and "the safety and welfare of any children or dependents connected to the victim or the convicted person" are taken into account before inclusion on the register.”
“I move amendment No. 15: In page 6, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: "(14) In deciding whether to make an order under subsection (2), the court shall have regard to— (a) the safety and wellbeing of the victim, including any risk of intimidation, retaliation or further harm, and (b) the safety and welfare of any children or dependents connected to the victim or the convicted person.".". The publication of a judgment may in some cases increase risk to victims, particularly in situations involving children or when you have closely connected communities or ongoing contact with the abuser. At present, the Bill provides for judicial discretion but does not specify any factors to guide that decision to support greater consistency in decision-making across cases.”
“It is to ensure that the register is not misinterpreted and encourage users to seek advice and support in addition to the register. That is why I am proposing that this subsection be included. Many people may have been found guilty of statutory offences. They may have had barring orders, protection orders or safety orders issued against them, and they may have breached those orders on numerous occasions, yet they will not be included in this register. They are dangerous individuals, though. The amendment is to ensure that people do not assume that, if a person is not on the register, they have not committed a serious crime.”
“I move amendment No. 14: In page 6, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “(14) The Courts Service shall ensure that, when the Register is made available to the public— (a) a statement is included to the effect that the absence of a person’s name from the Register does not indicate that such person does not pose a risk or has not previously engaged in domestic violence or abuse, and (b) information is provided directing users to appropriate support services, including national and local domestic violence support services.”.”. This amendment is looking for some sort of statutory disclaimer. The register may be seen by users as confirming that a person is safe if a specific name does not appear on the register.”
“I wish to draw attention to some personal experience of this. Where somebody commits a very serious assault or crime against a partner and, for summary, the Garda pursue the conviction, possibly for the attempt to kill or a section 4 assault, but then when it goes to the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, and due to plea bargaining or whatever, it is reduced to a section 3 or section 2 assault. While a reduced section 2 assault is a very serious assault, it is not included in the Bill. In that case, there should be some consideration given to including section 2 assaults where they have been plea bargained or reduced for that reason.”