Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

I thank the Minister for noting my belated April fool's attempt. However, this is a deadly serious issue and it must be an awful experience for a victim of a rape or a mugging to have to touch his or her attacker on the shoulder. One can only imagine the trauma a victim would experience if forced to go through that. It is almost as traumatic for the victim to look his or her attacker in the eye in a line up.

It is not rocket science to retrofit one-way glass in an office in a Garda station and such a room could be used as a normal office most of the time. It is simply a matter of adjusting the lighting behind the glass. Will the Minister listen to the Rape Crisis Centre and Victim Support? They want the suffering and trauma experienced by victims of such crimes to be limited. These facilities should be in place in larger Garda stations, which experience significant crime reporting. It is not impractical to retrofit such rooms and it is time to move on this. This would be a small but practical step to make victims of crime feel safer when coming forward to report a crime. It would also send a signal that the Government and the Garda will provide support for people who have been through traumatic events. It is grossly traumatic for a rape victim to have to face his or her attacker, look the person in the eye and, if not touch them on the shoulder, make a sign that the person attacked him or her. That can be just as frightening as dealing with the aftermath of violence, rape or a serious assault.

I ask the Minister to move much more quickly on this. Many European countries have such facilities in place and they are also commonplace in the US. As a matter of human decency, courtesy and respect, we should move ahead with such one-way mirrors.

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