Garret Kelleher (Fine Gael)

I want to take up some of the answers to the questions that Ms Behan raised rather than her opening statement which I found very stark. I thank her for the contributions she has made throughout the meeting. She spoke about how crucial counselling and therapy was to her survival and that she would not be here today if was not for that. She also said that she would not have gone to therapy in the first place if she had known that the intimate details of what she discussed with her therapist could be disclosed and used against her. That is at the core at what we need to get right. We need to have a victim-centred approach in the criminal justice system. Victims of crime need to have confidence and feel supported rather than feel fear in the perpetrator-friendly justice system that Ms Behan spoke of. This is something that we need to get right.

In her opening statement Ms Behan also mentioned that the three minutes she was given were nowhere near adequate to get across the points she wanted to raise. Is there anything else she would like to add to what she has already said?