Ms Maria McDonald:

The directive states that all gardaí are to be required to assess victims of crime individually by way of the nature of the crime, the victim's personal circumstances and so on. The difficulty that arises in the context of this Bill is how gardaí will do this consistently. Ms Gleeson mentioned risk assessment. In fairness to the Garda Síochána, it has changed its information technology systems such that cases in respect of which there is a risk of re-victimisation or domestic abuse are now flagged, but that is not enough. We need to ensure every garda conducts the individual assessment in the exact same way such that no victim falls through the loop and does not get the protection measures he or she needs.