I note that the term “relevant offence” includes an offence under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997 - assault occasioning harm. It is a wide category. Effectively, anything that is not a non-technical assault is an assault occasioning harm within the meaning of that Act. One consequence of stating it is a relevant offence, as will appear from the next section, is that a person who is accused of engaging in an assault occasioning harm will, in the circumstances described in section 2, be liable to be punished and convicted in Ireland in certain circumstances.
On Second Stage the Minister told the House that it did not apply simply to crimes against women, who are the primary object of protection under the Istanbul Convention, but also to men. I can see why that would be necessary, but we should try to confine the offences under section 3 to those involving domestic violence within the meaning of Article 3 of the convention. It states: “domestic violence shall mean all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occur within the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim”. That narrows it down. However, if a fellow throws a punch in a pub in Brisbane at a person with whom he has no or never had a domestic relationship of any kind within the meaning of the Act, does that mean he can be arrested for it in Dublin and tried as if he had committed the offence in Ireland?
