Thurles Information

Government gives approval to progress the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences, Domestic Violence and International Instruments) Bill 2025.

Bill will includes measures to:

• Introduce ‘Jennie’s Law’ – a new publicly accessible Domestic Violence Register of Judgements managed by the Courts Service
• Strengthen the law on sexual consent
• Replace the term ‘child pornography’ in legislation with more appropriate term of ‘child sexual abuse material’

The Irish Government has approved the drafting of legislation to establish a publicly accessible Domestic Violence Register of Judgements, same to be published by the Courts Service. This new law will allow those convicted of domestic violence against a partner or former partner, to be publicly named on this Register of Judgements.

The General Scheme of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences, Domestic Violence and International Instruments) Bill 2025 will also:

• Strengthen the law on sexual consent.
• Bolster our legislation on preventing and combating human trafficking;
• Remove dual criminality in respect of certain offences including forced marriage; and
• Replace references to “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” in legislation and in legal proceedings.

The General Scheme will now be referred to the Justice Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny and, when its report is received, work on finalising the Bill will be prioritised.

In practice, this means that when a person says they thought the other person had consented to sexual activity, this must be based on objective circumstances and not simply be the subjective belief of the accused. Under the new legislation this will apply not just to sexual intercourse but to all types of sexual activity between adults.

The proposed Register of Domestic Violence Judgements is a mechanism to facilitate publication of written judgments following conviction on indictment for serious offences relating to domestic violence, setting out details of the offence, the perpetrator, and other relevant information. Once issued, judgments will be published on the Courts Service website. The Court will retain the discretion to decide if a judgment should be delivered in a specific case, and the victim must provide their consent. The Register of Domestic Violence judgments will also signpost users to guidance on reporting domestic violence incidents and information on domestic violence supports.

In line with EU obligations and Council of Europe recommendations, the General Scheme also removes the requirement for dual criminality for sexual violence offences including rape, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and forced abortion and forced sterilisation. Until now, if such offences were committed abroad by an Irish citizen, they could not be prosecuted by the State unless this behaviour was also a crime in the place where it occurred.

The General Scheme can be read in full here: Criminal Law (Sexual Offences, Domestic Violence and International Instruments) Bill 2025.