Ms Ciara Carberry:

I thank the committee for inviting us and thank the other participants for their very powerful accounts of the needs of victims. As my colleague from the Bar Council mentioned, the genesis of the O'Malley Review of Protections for Vulnerable Witnesses in the Investigation and Prosecution of Sexual Offences was concern about low reporting levels for rape and other sexual assaults and concern as to how victims are treated within the reporting, investigation and trial processes and beyond. I attended the review group on behalf of the Department and can confirm that the group was entirely committed to putting the victim at the centre of its work. That focus on the victim and on reforming the criminal justice process to make it as safe and secure as possible for the victim is reflected in every one of the more than 50 recommendations in the report.

Among those recommendations, as my colleague mentioned, was the urgent need to introduce preliminary trial hearings in order to reduce delays and to allow for certain matters to be addressed in advance of the trial. The Criminal Procedure Bill 2021 was drafted as a priority in order to give effect to this recommendation. The Bill was published before Christmas and has now passed all Stages in the Dáil and will go before the Seanad very shortly. Preliminary hearings will reduce delays and increase efficiency in how our criminal trials are run. They will remove some of the uncertainties, we hope, that victims currently face about potential issues arising after the trial has started. They allow the court to deal with many of the issues that currently require the jury to be excused during the trial, sometimes on multiple occasions. Victims have spoken about how difficult it is for them when they have mentally prepared for a trial date and the trial does not go ahead and how upsetting and difficult it is if something unexpected is brought up during the trial that results in interruptions while difficulties or legal arguments are dealt with by the court. While preliminary hearings cannot change the fact that the trial is still an adversarial process, that an accused person is entitled to defend himself or herself robustly and that events can unfold in unexpected ways, their introduction should make trials more predictable and help them run more smoothly.

We can also provide strengthened supports for victims, including access to their own legal advice and support throughout the investigation, the trial and beyond in order that they have the information they need to make informed decisions and to understand what is happening and what their choices are at every stage. As recommended by Tom O'Malley in his review, we are working to extend the current right to legal representation that victims have during an application to question them about their prior sexual history in order that it covers the questioning itself in court.

A range of other legislative amendments to the sexual offences legislation arise from Tom O'Malley's recommendations, and the Department is developing the general scheme of a new sexual offences Bill which we expect to complete before the end of the year and which will provide for all those changes.

I will now hand over to my colleague, Mr. Deaglán Ó Briain, who will speak about the implementation.