Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

My Bill will also include measures to restrict unjustified and vexatious imputations at trial against the character of a deceased or incapacitated victim or witness. It will also provide additional protection for victims at pre-trial stage. I believe the courts should have stronger powers, for example, to order an accused to refrain from contact with the victim, his or her family and other parties in the period leading up to the trial. Those measures are based on the recommendations in the 2007 report of the balance in the criminal law review group — the Hogan report. I suggest to Members of the House, and to some of the people in the Gallery whom I know have victims at the core of their interests, to examine the Hogan report, which is excellent. When I first came to the Department and examined the issue, that report was one of the reasons I decided not just to examine the issue of victim impact statements, but to go further to produce the most radical criminal law proposals ever to be brought before the Oireachtas in examining double jeopardy. Those measures will go a long way towards redressing such imbalances as may exist by enabling victims to feel they are fairly treated by the criminal justice system at a difficult time in their lives, while at the same time not interfering with the essential fairness of the trial process to which the accused is constitutionally entitled.

In addition to the legislative proposals, the justice for victims initiative will also contain an administrative package to include the establishment of a new executive office of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to support crime victims, focusing on the co-ordination of delivery of services; a reconstituted Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime — with a role to distribute funding to groups working with crime victims, as well as to provide general oversight of services and to promote awareness; and a victims of crime consultative forum, representing victims' interests, through which they will be able to liaise and feed into policy with the commission.

The proposals flow from the framework document, Recommendations for Future Structures and Services to Victims of Crime, prepared by the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime, which I published last week. The portent of my press conference was to indicate what I intended to do from a policy point of view to assist victims. The framework document examines the current supports that are available to victims and outlines how they might be strengthened and co-ordinated to ensure that victims receive adequate assistance in the aftermath of crime. I believe the framework document to be well-considered and I have accepted the recommendations of the commission. The commission's main role will continue to be the distribution of funding to groups working with crime victims, but it will also have an important role in contributing to strategy on victims of crime and promoting awareness of the services available to victims of crime. I will also set up a victims of crime consultative forum, which will represent victims' interests and which will engage with the commission. It is the Government's position that any major additional changes to the law in this area should await the outcome of the third programme of the Law Reform Commission, LRC, which includes a commitment to examine the victim and the criminal justice system. That project will involve a general review of the interaction between victims of crime and the criminal justice system.

I acknowledge that on a first reading the Fine Gael Bill appears reasonable. The Bill was originally introduced in 2002. It is just the 2002 Bill with the 2002 struck out and replaced with 2008——

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