Ms Maria McDonald:

I thank Deputy Clare Daly. On the provision of information, she pointed out correctly that they are legally required to provide information on the available restorative justice services. That is the actual wording used within the directive. The Garda leaflet which is currently made available to victims of crime refers to the restorative justice services available under the Children Act. They are the provisions I mentioned in my opening statement. However, as the Deputy rightly pointed out, Le Chéile, the Probation Service and a significant number of other services are also available to victims of crime. Therefore, the Garda is currently not compliant in not providing that information. It does not necessarily have to be in the leaflet per sebut it must be accessible somewhere - for example, online. The difficulty that arises based on the fact that it has now been removed from the Bill is that the Garda may now amend its leaflet to not inform victims about any restorative justice services whatsoever. As the Deputy indicated, that would prevent victims and offenders from benefitting from the significant progress which can be made as a result of restorative justice and the rehabilitation which can result.

I spoke with a victim of crime who had engaged in a restorative justice process where a family member had died and she indicated that the process was remarkable in the benefit she got from it. She was able to understand what had happened to her child. The family wanted to know how the child died. She also became close to the offender who suddenly understood what the impact of that crime had been on the family. They are in regular contact. While that does not happen in all situations, if people feel they can engage in that process, rehabilitation may occur and hopefully that individual will not come back into the prison system again. The difficulty that arises in relation to the right to information more generally is that even though there is a Garda leaflet, many victims do not even know it exists. It is not very easy to find. Gardaí are not necessarily giving victims the leaflet. They may have to go online to find it. It would be even more difficult for them to find out about the available restorative justice services.

Re-victimisation within the criminal justice process is obviously a major issue and training is key, including within the parole and sentencing process. Also, there must be appropriate supports in place, for example, if a victim comes in during the sentencing process. It is often forgotten that a significant number of sentences are appealed. The victim has to go through the trauma of an appeal against conviction or sentence not knowing what is going to happen. The supports may not be there which were originally in place. One must ensure that they are very well informed. I have come across a significant number of cases where victims were informed at the last minute that a sentencing appeal was coming up, which can cause a massive level of trauma. Adjournments should be made to facilitate the informing of victims.

In the context of re-victimisation and the offender, training within the prison system to give offenders the opportunity to understand their behaviour facilitates rehabilitation. It is not always possible to involve a victim in that process, but if programmes could be established within the prison system to look at that, it would be very positive from a rehabilitation perspective and reduce in the long term the re-victimisation of victims of crime. I hope that answers the questions.