Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the presenters for their evidence to the committee. A number of the questions that I wished to ask have already been asked so I will put a number of additional ones now.

When thinking about this meeting today and the number of rape cases that are reported to an Garda Síochána but do not actually progress to the courts, I thought that such cases would also be a very important part of this meeting and how the experience for those persons could be improved. These cases predominantly involve women. If the experience in court and the performance of the court is improved, that will also improve the performance for people who do not actually make it to court. I know that the decisions as to whether to bring forward cases are made on the likelihood of a conviction and not necessarily on the merits of the case, as such. The decisions are made on the basis of whether the case can get through the court system, which is a problem. If we are successful in amending how the courts deal with cases that could lead, hopefully, to proceeding with many more prosecutions.

In 2018, for example, there were 2,771 victims of sexual assault, but in the same year there were 304 convictions. That amounts to 11% of the victims of assault.

Something that should also be looked at is that it is very hard to find statistics on the number of cases prosecuted, and so forth, through the courts. I had difficulty with this but perhaps I was just not looking in the right place.

I have a specific question where the Criminal Justice Act 1993 provides for a review of unduly lenient sentences. In 2017, 63% of sentences reviewed were increased and in 2018, 72% of sentences were increased. That shows me a system that is not working because no system of appeals should have such a high increase in the sentences delivered. When will we expect to see a change in this and how will we see this working? This should also lead to an increase in cases going forward and the courts system could end up being a victim of its own success in needing more resources to enable a more successful system to work. It would probably be for the Department to respond on how it might deal with this and perhaps the Law Society might deal with the point about the appeals of unsuccessful cases.