Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I do not propose to accept this amendment. It seeks to bring about a provision that already exists in the legislation. It is, therefore, not necessary. Section 5 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993, which will be substituted by section 4, sets out the circumstances in which a sentencing judge is required to take into account victim impact evidence and the circumstances in which a victim has the right to make a victim impact statement.

These circumstances relate to whether the offence for which a person has been convicted comes within the categories specified in section 5. Those categories are a sexual offence within the meaning of the Criminal Evidence Act 1992, an offence involving violence or the threat of violence, an offence under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act and an offence consisting of attempting or conspiring to commit such offences. These are the categories of offences in which such a mandatory regime is most acceptable. This statutory obligation does not prevent a judge from taking account of victim impact evidence in other types of cases if he or she considered such evidence would be helpful to determining the appropriate sentence. Judges have always had this discretion. The creation of a mandatory obligation in certain categories of cases does not alter that. The Deputy's amendment is, therefore, unnecessary.

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