Ms Ciara Carberry:

I will address the rape shield law. It is a restriction on the defence being allowed to question the victim generally about prior sexual history that is not relevant to the offence at hand. We already have restrictions of that type. They have been improved at various points through the years. One cannot question a victim in a rape trial about any prior sexual history other than the actual encounter at hand in the prosecution without the permission of the judge. One of the recommendations in the O'Malley report is that victims will be able to have their legal representative with them in court during that questioning to ensure that it stays within the bounds of the permission that was given by the court. That is a change that was recommended by Tom O'Malley and it is something that we are committed to implementing in the sexual offences Bill this year. Of course, we must consider how we can continue to improve that because it is not in anybody's interest for victims to be retraumatised and revictimised during the proceedings and that is something we would like to avoid.

On the issue of resourcing for the courts, I think my colleague, Mr. Ó Briain, might be better placed to provide information to the Senator. I know the Minister has allocated significantly increased resources to assist on this issue.