Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

——and in that context it may be, and I believe this is what the Deputy is driving at, that anticipation of an adversarial trial in unsympathetic circumstances may cause many women, in particular those who have been the subject of rape offences, to abandon their claims. That is something we would have to study carefully to determine the counter-measures we could take to ensure that factor is not an active one.

See this speech in context