James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I will ask a few questions and Deputy Costello can ask further questions. Members may drop in and out of the meeting because a number of us are participating in the justice debate taking place in the Chamber. I will need to go to the Chamber shortly to contribute.

The Rape Crisis Network referred to the prosecutor supplying a copy of the statement to the complainant prior to cross-examination or questions. There is also a reference in the IHREC statement to sex offences and providing further protection to victims. That is not addressed in this Bill but is in other legislation. I should mention for the witnesses and other interested parties that the committee carried out a study on the experience of complainants in sex offence trials and hearings about a year ago and produced a report. One of our recommendations was that there should be separate legal representation for complainants. I struggled for a minute when thinking about the prosecutor handing a copy of the statement to the complainant. I wondered first if that happens automatically already but I do not think it does. It is not really the defence's duty to do that either. The prosecutor has a slightly separate role, as we all know, in a courtroom.

The prosecutor is not just there to get a conviction at any cost, but also to keep the court right. The prosecutor is almost a neutral party as well as being a prosecutor. The committee recommended that there be an independent legal representative to accompany, assist and advise the complainants. This would be a third party in the court room, as it were. Our recommendations should apply as much to this Bill as they do to any other. The reference to this matter at the outset caught my eye.

So that we are all on the same page, the Delphi indicators were mentioned. What are they? Will the MRCI walk us through them briefly?