Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputies on this side of the House who have expressed support for the Bill in all the different parties which have been represented. I also recognise the groups represented in the Public Gallery. Many of them are individuals who devote a huge amount of their time to assisting victims of crime. They came here yesterday and today with some hope that there might be a realistic approach to this issue by the Government but they have been sadly let down. The reality is that the victims of crime are now to be made victims of the political pettiness of an arrogant and incompetent Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

I likened the Minister's intellectual approach to the Bill yesterday to that of Homer Simpson. I want to revise my judgment in that regard because the Minister might be better described as "McDowell light." The Minister's victims initiative as announced last week could be a tribute to George Orwell in the language he used in 1984 to describe how people deal with issues. It was not so much a justice for victims initiative but an initiative to block a Bill designed to bring justice for victims of crime.

We had the extraordinary spectacle today of the Deputies opposite welcoming a press conference and a promise, which is quite unique in a debate on legislation in this House, as far as I can recall. The reality is that there is no similarity between the rights Fine Gael wishes to provide for victims in our Victims' Rights Bill and the proposals announced last Thursday by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. In his refusal to put party politics to one side and take a bipartisan approach to essential legislation, the Minister is unnecessarily delaying giving to victims of crime the rights to which they are entitled. Even if he delivers on his proposals, the Minister will not give victims the recognition they deserve or the rights expressly identified in the legislation before the House.

If one carefully analyses the script from the Minister's conference last Thursday and his speech delivered in the House yesterday, it is clear he and the Government are expressly opposed to the following provisions which are contained in the Fine Gael Bill. He does not want to create an independent statutory commission for victims of crime because he will no longer be able to control it.

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