Ms Deirdre Duffy:

I thank Senator Bacik for her questions. Head 28 concerns the complainant or the alleged victim giving information at the bail hearing. This raises a number of issues. First, we know there have been issues before the court around gardaí giving opinion evidence. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and other bodes have raised problems around that procedure. It is important to note that a judge's role is to infer from facts. In the ideal world, therefore, all that would be put before a judge would be facts, by which the judge would then come to a decision on whether bail would be granted. It is complex and in certain situations opinion may be included. As Senator Bacik mentioned, however, this should be limited very much, if it is included at all.

I have serious concerns about the victims themselves because if they are going to give an opinion, does that mean they are open to cross-examination and a bail hearing around that opinion or belief? I do not necessarily know if we want a justice system where an alleged victim can be put in the box at a bail hearing and cross-examined about certain issues. That is another matter.

By and large, the ICCL is of the opinion that only gardaí should proffer that type of evidence. Victims have other ways to interact with the criminal justice process where their rights can be protected. I agree that if it were deemed that this would be necessary, if we could see circumstances where the wrong decision was being made by members of the Judiciary because they were not getting all the information and could only get the information from alleged victims, something could be included but it would need to be framed in much tighter language as a necessity.