I welcome this Bill, Jennie's law, to the House and I welcome the opportunity to speak on it. The legislation is the culmination of years of hard work, advocacy and determination on part of the Poole family. Jennifer Poole was from Ballygall and had been in touch with me many times on many different issues. She was the 24-year-old mother of Nevaeh and Zack, an amazing healthcare worker, a much-loved member of her camogie team in her GAA club, Erin's Isle. On 17 April 2021, she was killed in her home on Melville Drive in Finglas by her ex-partner Gavin Murphy, who is now serving a life sentence. What compounds the tragedy is that Jennifer never knew or had any way of finding out that Murphy had a previous conviction for assaulting a former partner. He told her he had been living in Spain. In fact, he had been in prison. Her family believes that if she had known this, she would have made a different decision and not have proceeded with the relationship. What was all the more difficult was that her family did not know of this previous conviction either until they heard it during the court case for her murder. They were stunned. Since 2021, Jason, her brother, has turned his family's grief into a powerful campaign that has included petitions, media appearances and meetings with successive Ministers with one simple aim, namely that no other woman will be unable to access the fact that a previous judgment had been made against their partner. He has the full support of his community in Finglas, which has backed him from the very start. On a personal note, it has been a privilege to work alongside Jason on this campaign. He is a credit to his community, as was his sister. It has also been a pleasure to work with Senator O'Loughlin and the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan. I acknowledge the road this legislation has travelled. It started with Senator O'Loughlin's draft of an original Bill with Jason which was brought to the Seanad. The Minister backed this campaign as a backbench TD long before he had responsibility for in the area. The legislation has now been brought to Cabinet and before these Houses. The Bill inserts a new Part 3A into the Domestic Violence Act 2018, establishing a public domestic violence judgments register managed by the Courts Service whereby if a person convicted on indictment of a serious domestic violence offence, including murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual assault, non-fatal strangulation, harassment and coercive control, the trial judge will have the discretion to publish that judgment. The victim's consent is required. A person may apply to be removed from the register but not earlier than three years after the conviction. Any removal will remain at the court's discretion. I also welcome the elegant method the Minister used to make this information available. As Deputy Kelly said, it was tricky as to how we would proceed. The approach the Minister has selected avoids potential obstacles which could have prevented the legislation being passed. Our courts are required to administer justice in public. In principle, every conviction is already a public fact. In practice, with fewer court reporters than there used to be, a lot of judgments go unreported in the media. Rather than build a new register, the Minister has simply ensured that the judgments which are already public will actually be published, relying on a principle of open justice. I echo the Minister's point that a register alone is not a solution. It has to sit alongside a wider strategy around funding of victims' support organisations, awareness raising and the work of Cuan. This law will be transformative in helping people across Ireland who are in a relationship to discover whether their partner has a history of serious domestic violence convictions. In her life, a mother, a care worker, a club member, Jennifer Poole gave so much to our community. She stood for everything that is positive about our community. It is fitting that even after this tragedy, she and her family have inspired this community to pass Jennie's law and save lives in this country.

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