Civil restraining orders in Ireland: stalking and harassment by someone who is not a partner

Until September 2024 the law gave a person being stalked or harassed by someone who was not a partner or family member only two routes: a Garda complaint, which depended on the DPP prosecuting, or a High Court injunction, which few could afford. Part 5 of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023 added a third. Anyone can now apply to the District Court for a civil restraining order against a person who has stalked or harassed them, whatever the relationship between them, and 1,839 people did in 2025.

This guide explains who can apply, what the court has to be satisfied of, how the application is made and heard, what the order does, what happens on breach, and when the Domestic Violence Act 2018 is the right route instead. If you are the person the application is against, the second half of the guide is for you too.

If you are in danger now, ring 999 or 112. The support page lists the services that help with safety planning before and after court.

Who the order is for

The civil restraining order is for stalking or harassment by someone outside a domestic relationship. That is the point of it: the Domestic Violence Act 2018 already covers spouses, civil partners, people who are or were in an intimate relationship, parents and children, and people who live together, and the 2023 Act fills the gap for everyone else. A neighbour. A former friend. A colleague or a former colleague. A customer. An ex-partner's relative. A stranger who has fixed on you. Someone you met once.

No Garda complaint is needed before you apply, no prosecution has to be under way, and the other person does not have to have been convicted of anything. The application is yours, and it is civil.

What the court has to be satisfied of

The District Court can make the order where it is satisfied that the respondent has engaged in conduct towards you of the kind the Act describes, which broadly matches the conduct that the harassment and stalking offences in the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 cover: following, watching, pestering, besetting, communicating with or about you, loitering near your home or work, or interfering with your property, in a way that caused you, or would reasonably be expected to cause you, fear, alarm or distress, and that an order is necessary and proportionate to protect you.

The standard is the civil one, the balance of probabilities, not the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt. Evidence is what decides it: dates, messages, screenshots, call logs, photographs, a diary of incidents, witnesses, and any Garda PULSE reference numbers from complaints you have made.

The application

The application is made at the District Court office for the area where you or the respondent live. The office supplies the form, and the Courts Service forms page carries it; ask the office about any fee, because the schedule treats some protective applications as free and the office will tell you which applies. Use find a court for the office and its hours.

The office issues the application and a date, and the respondent is served with notice so that they can attend and answer. Where you need protection before that date, the Act allows the court to make an interim order on your application alone, without notice to the respondent, to last until the full hearing. Tell the office when you apply if that is what you need.

The court date tool gives you the days to the hearing and the courthouse card, and the court day guide explains arriving, the list and the call-over.

The hearing

Both sides attend before a District Court judge. You give evidence of what happened; the respondent can question you and give their own account; each side can call witnesses. Bring every record you have, in date order, with copies. If you have a solicitor they present the case; if you do not, the judge will ask what you need to establish and the court registrar will tell you where to stand. Ask the office in advance whether the hearing will be held in private.

Civil legal aid from the Legal Aid Board is means-tested and carries a contribution, and the Board decides whether an application of this kind qualifies; its eligibility calculator is the place to start. The criminal legal aid scheme does not apply to a civil application.

What the order does

The order prohibits the respondent from doing the things the court specifies, for the period the court fixes. Typically that means not communicating with you by any means, not approaching within a set distance of your home or work, not following or watching you, and not going to named places. The court tailors it to the conduct that brought you there, so be specific about what you need stopped.

The order can be varied or discharged on application by either side, and it ends on the date it fixes unless renewed. A copy goes to the Garda.

Breach

Breach of a civil restraining order is a criminal offence under the 2023 Act. If the respondent does what the order prohibits, report it to the Garda with the order and your record of the breach. The Garda can arrest and charge, and the prosecution is heard in the District Court in the ordinary way, with the District Court's twelve-month ceiling applying on a summary conviction. A breach can also support a separate charge of harassment or stalking; the harassment guide explains those offences and the no-contact orders a criminal court can make on conviction.

If the application is against you

If you have been served with notice of an application, attend on the date. An order can be made in your absence, and it can be enforced by arrest. Read the application and the grounds, gather your own records of any contact, and consider a solicitor; the solicitor page explains how to find one who does District Court work. Civil legal aid is means-tested, and the Legal Aid Board decides whether it covers your defence.

Two things matter from the day you are served. Do not contact the applicant, directly or through anyone else, even to ask them to withdraw; that contact is likely to become evidence at the hearing. And if an interim order has been made, keep to it from the moment you receive it, because breach of an interim order is prosecuted in the same way as breach of a full one.

If an order is made against you, it is a civil order and not a conviction, and it does not appear in Garda vetting as a conviction. A conviction follows only if you breach it and are prosecuted, and at that point criminal legal aid becomes available: if you may qualify, ask the judge for it at your first appearance on the breach charge, and the legal aid page explains the statement of means.

When the Domestic Violence Act is the route

If the person is a current or former spouse, civil partner or intimate partner, a parent, a child, or someone you live with, the Domestic Violence Act 2018 is the route, and the District Court family law office handles it. The orders are:

Breach of any of them is an offence with a Class B fine, up to €4,000, and/or up to 12 months. In 2025 there were 27,429 domestic violence applications in the District Court, 10,753 of them for protection orders, and emergency applications are heard the same day. The safety, protection and barring orders guide and the hearing guide explain the application and the day in court.

Women's Aid (1800 341 900), Men's Aid (01 554 3811) and Safe Ireland help with the application and with safety planning; the support page lists them with the other services.

Where this leaves you

Decide which route applies: the Domestic Violence Act for a partner or family member, the 2023 Act's civil restraining order for anyone else. Then go to the District Court office with your records, and use the court date tool once you have a date so that nothing is missed. The support page is there before and after.