Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The House will be aware I am an admirer of the Minister but I have come to the view that barristers should not be let near the Office of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and teachers should not be Ministers for Education and Science. The Minister's stock in trade is the ability to argue any point on whichever side of the case he happens to stand. In this instance, his worthy civil servants have burrowed away since Committee Stage to come up with a new argument for resisting this amendment. Where else did they find their argument but in a comment by the Commissioner for Human Rights? They now think the law of unintended consequences may apply and that aspects of my amendment could be read as a positive inducement to undermine the law. One has only to give that argument to a Minister like Deputy Brian Lenihan and, by God, he will make the most of it. Of course, one could equally give him the comments by the commissioner which support my amendment and he would convince us that the amendment is a good idea.

I do not accept his main point, which was not adduced on Committee Stage because we have only discovered it since then. I cannot see how normalising the environment for a young person who has been exploited disgracefully could be seen as anything other than an incentive for co-operation in bringing a prosecution. Law enforcement can only be effective if the environment is normalised and if a legally protected recovery period is available. A young person brutalised in these circumstances needs a period of physical and psychological recovery. I do not believe the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill is the place to provide that period, which should be provided for in the Bill before us. Notwithstanding this legislation, it remains the case that the victim can be jailed or deported. Will the Minister agree to give NGOs representation on the high level group?

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