Mr. Tom O'Malley:

The Deputy's first question raises a very valid point. As I said, many may opt to travel to England, as they do now, rather than go through the trauma of reporting. As the Deputy rightly said, that assumes one can afford to travel to England. It could lead to wealth-based discrimination. The verification that might be introduced would not necessarily be too traumatic and so on to be workable but in many cases it probably would be quite traumatic, which is why people might choose another option such as travelling to the UK.

I am familiar with the victims' rights directive. It concerns assisting victims of crime and so on. I am unsure if there would be a conflict in that regard but that needs to be examined and we could revert to the Deputy on the issue.