09/06/2026
Serious domestic abusers are set to be officially named and shamed online within weeks, it has emerged.
Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan will on Tuesday seek Cabinet approval to introduce Jennie's Law - legislation that will identify abusers for the world to see. Mr O'Callaghan will ask his cabinet colleagues to rubberstamp the prepared legislation - and it will then immediately start its passage through the Oireachtas.
If, as expected the cabinet agrees and it is passed by the Dail and Seanad before being signed into law by President Catherine Connolly, the legislation will see anyone convicted of attacking a current or former spouse going on a register - that will be open to the public. Sources tell us civil servants expect the register to be enacted by mid-July - as soon as the President signs the act into law.
The Minister believes the law - to be named after murder victim Jennifer Poole - well help anyone in a relationship or planning one to learn if the other person has a history of serious domestic abuse. "If a person is convicted of a serious criminal offence before the courts, that is a public conviction and the public are entitled to know about that conviction," Mr O'Callaghan said ahead of Tuesday's cabinet meeting.
The legislation is called The Domestic Violence (Judgments) Register Bill 2026 - but is to be known as Jennie's law, after Ms Poole. Her family have been calling for such a register since thug Gavin Murphy, 33, stabbed the mum of two to death at her home in Finglas in April 2021.
Jennie did not know that Murphy had a history of violence against women and was previously jailed for two years for attacking a former partner and her mother with a knife in 2015. The new legislation will apply to convictions for serious domestic violence offences, including murder, manslaughter, r**e and aggravated sexual assault.
