Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The general objective of this Bill is to try to ensure that when juries are called for court hearings they are not sitting in a room for two days while there is discussion on what is admissible and inadmissible and legal argument over various matters. That will all be dealt with in the preliminary hearing. The issues we focus on, and this has been raised today and in other forums, are issues relating to cases of rape or sexual abuse, in particular, where a person's character or a person's sexual history would come into it - the clothing a person was wearing on a night out was used in cases in the past - and how that can be dealt with in a preliminary hearing. We would all suggest, hopefully, that it should not be something that would be taken into a trial.

However, I wonder about other aspects of it. For example, we often see in trials where there is a great deal of evidence of what is called a person's good character, a character reference. For many people it is a type of suggestion that the accused person in a particular case may be from a particular class rather than from another class, and that is often used in proceedings of that nature. Most of us would suggest that this is not appropriate. Is that something that can be dealt with in preliminary hearings to ensure it cannot be brought up in cases, particularly where there are very serious assaults? The emphasis should be on the action that took place, how it happened, where it happened and whether the person is convicted of it, rather than whether the person was in good standing in the local GAA club or whatever. That is not the issue. The issue is the hurt or harm that was done to another individual or to society in general. Does the Minister have a view on that?

In addition, we are going into a situation where the emphasis of the legislation is on speeding up the judicial system to make it more efficient and work better. However, as I said earlier, the experience in the other jurisdiction north of the Border has been that it has not done that. In fact, it has created a system almost of double trial and delayed justice, rather than speeded-up justice. We need to be cognisant of that as we move forward with this and ensure we do not go down that path and that we learn from the lessons north of the Border. It is a different judicial system. That must be said. There are serious differences, and quite major differences in some places, but I believe lessons need to be learned at the same time.