Mr. Hugh Boyle:

The Law Reform Commission is looking at a particular aspect of the offence, namely the question of whether the harassment must be persistent. There is an issue about this. Currently, in order to prove the offence, it must be shown that the harassment took place over a period of time and on a number of occasions. That is not always necessarily the appropriate definition. A one-off occasion could be sufficient to cause harassment. This is something the Law Reform Commission has been asked to look at and it is part of its work programme. However, I do not know when we can expect to hear from it on that.

On the question of the adequacy of the legislation generally, our discussion here this morning shows there are nuances and areas where the legislation needs to be re-examined in terms of the evolution of the use and misuse of the Internet and telephone services. This demonstrates the difficulty for the law to keep up to speed with the level of change that occurs. Change in the law is a slow process, but changes in technology happen much faster. We are always playing catch up to some extent, but at least the issues have been identified and are being examined.