Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I must take with a grain of salt the Minister's comment about how one can deal with matters pertaining to protecting victims more quickly through administrative arrangements. Fine Gael introduced a Bill in this House three years ago that would have addressed all the issues in respect of victims and would have addressed those matters that fall outside the victim's charter at present and which I now expect to be included therein. In the context of speed, it is the speed of a tortoise competing with the snail. I am unsure in which category I would put the Minister in addressing these issues.

I agree the victim's charter is a highly positive development and I am pleased to hear that it is to be updated. However, to ensure that the State provides services to victims to which they are entitled, these matters should be incorporated into statute. There is a real benefit in so incorporating them. It was interesting to hear the Minister talking about the need for flexibility and not doing it by way of statute. He then criticised the extent to which the amendment is flexible. Clearly, one must draft something like this with a degree of flexibility built into it but in a manner that recognises the needs and rights of victims and which addresses the issue well put by Deputy Rabbitte in the context of the Garda Síochána. As I stated, some members of the force do extraordinarily good work in keeping victims informed and in being of assistance to victims. However, there are others who are not so good at that and victims fall through the cracks. This provision is designed to ensure this does not occur.

The critique the Minister made of the proposed section 7(1)(m) is not worth taking seriously because it is about advising people of their entitlement, in specified discrete circumstances, to give evidence by video link, particularly in the area of sexual offences. This is not always understood in the context of young children and this is something about which victims and their parents need to be informed at a very early stage in the process to relieve them of some of the added worry and trauma they fear in the context of a court hearing.

I will conclude by noting that I am disappointed by the Minister's response and intend to put the amendment.

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