Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan will establish a domestic violence register of those convicted of rape or serious sexual assault, comparable to lists published of tax offenders.
He told the Dáil that the only way the public knows about such cases is if a journalist happens to be in court or if a victim waives their anonymity. “We have a situation in this country where we publish a list of tax offenders. We don’t publish it of people being convicted of rape or serious sexual assault.”
Mr O’Callaghan said he considers it “unfair to every victim to carry that burden” of having to go public. “I think that’s too much for them and I think we need to have a system in place where there is disclosure of information on people who’ve been convicted and of serious offenses”.
The Minister also said he hoped to bring a memorandum to Government next month for legislation on what campaigners have called “Valerie’s law”, to allow courts to remove guardianship rights from parents or guardians who kill or seriously harm another parent or guardian of their child.
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He also promised to review the law on the disclosure of counselling notes.
Mr O’Callaghan was responding to a private member’s motion on gender-based violence introduced by People Before Profit Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, calling for a range of measures including legislation to prevent access to counselling records by the accused and their defence team.
Survivors of gender-based violence and families of victims attended in the visitors’ gallery for the two-hour debate.
The motion also called for the implementation of “Valerie’s Law”, to remove any guardianship rights for those who kill the other parent of their children; an end to the practice of character references before sentencing for those convicted in cases of gender-based violence; and the introduction of a domestic violence register dubbed “Jennie’s Law”, to make available information about anyone with a conviction for domestic violence.
Ms Coppinger said there should be compulsory training of the judiciary about sexual and gender-based violence and the to the practice of “rape myths and victim-blaming” being put by defence legal teams in court cases.
The Dublin West TD said the biggest danger to a woman or girl is violence and that every 10 minutes a girl or woman is murdered by a male relative, partner or family member globally. In Ireland since 1996, 274 women have died violently up to February 7th, this year.
Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney said Ireland’s patriarchal society tolerates misogyny and “it perplexes me that we don’t as policymakers and legislators we don’t” connect the misogyny of the gender-based violence “with the everyday sexism that women face every day”.
She also said: “I’m in this Dáil three months and I have been called a girl multiple times by colleagues around me, and that is not okay.”
