Ministers yesterday approved the general scheme of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences, Domestic Violence and International Instruments) Bill 2025, which will now go to the Oireachtas justice committee for pre-legislative scrutiny.

The bill will establish a publicly accessible domestic violence register of judgments, to be published by the Courts Service.

The proposed register 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 measure has been dubbed “Jennie’s law” in memory of Jennifer Poole, who was murdered by her ex-partner Gavin Murphy in 2021.

Justice, home affairs and migration minister Jim O’Callaghan said: “Jason Poole, the brother of Jennifer Poole, has long campaigned for such a register.

“Advocacy is hugely important and effective and I am proud to be in a position as minister to introduce the legislation that will provide for a register in honour of Jennifer’s memory.

“I am confident that a publicly available register of judgments will assist people who are in a relationship or considering a relationship with a person to ascertain whether they have a history of serious domestic violence convictions.”

The bill will also change the law in rape and sexual assault cases to provide that “honest belief” that consent was given is not a defence where that belief is not reasonable.

“The Law Reform Commission has recommended that the law on rape should be reformed to require an accused person’s belief in consent to be objectively reasonable,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

“However, during the process of drafting these provisions as part of a previous bill, it became apparent that redefining the mental state for rape without extending this also to sexual assault risked creating issues where an accused is on trial for multiple charges.

“The provisions relating to rape were removed from the earlier bill but will now be progressed alongside provisions on sexual assault, ensuring that any belief in consent must be reasonable, whether this is in relation to a charge of rape or a charge of sexual assault.”

Other measures in the bill include the transposition of EU Directives on combating human trafficking and on violence against women, and the replacement of references to “child pornography” in existing legislation with references to “child sexual abuse material”.