Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For far too long in this country the victims of crime have been ignored and they certainly have not been supported appropriately.

Crime has many victims and causes huge psychological and emotional trauma and anguish, as well as the other more obvious physical, and in many cases, financial effects. Victims have to go to court to bear witness to look for justice not just for themselves but for the community in which they live. They then become witnesses, often feel that they are the ones on trial during cross examination and have to relive their difficult and often traumatic experiences. Our victims deserve and need support, dignity and appropriate protection. This is especially true for victims of sensitive crimes such as rape and domestic violence as well as children themselves.

This Bill introduces for the first time statutory rights for victims of crime. Those three essential rights are the right to information, the right to protection and the right to support. One of the interesting features of the Bill relates to a visit I paid not too long ago to Dolphin House where I saw the archaic situation facing services relating to our family courts in Dublin. One of the things that struck me was the lack of privacy for victims and the fact that they were in the same small packed space in halls as those accused of perpetrating crimes against them. I found this quite appalling. I can only imagine the difficulty this visited on those people who were, in the main, women. I am glad to see the provision that there must be a separate waiting area for victims as opposed to those accused of crime.

I compliment on Rape Crisis Network Ireland on its comprehensive submission, which contained many recommendations. In particular, the recommendation that there be a victim ombudsman certainly has merit. There is also a lot of merit in the 14th recommendation, which involves having pre-recorded submissions in certain instances.

The State and all of us must encourage everybody who is a victim of crime to report it. It is sometimes not a very easy thing to do but there is an onus on every victim to do that because that supports other potential victims down the line. It is certainly not easy for people to waive their anonymity but I applaud those who do so to help others. The case of Anna Ilnicka is one we have all read about. The letter she wrote to Members of the Dáil described in harrowing detail how victims of crime can be utterly failed by the health and justice systems in this country. Anna wants and deserves an inquiry into the events surrounding how she was treated by State agencies following the brutal physical and sexual assault she experienced in 2006. There was no sexual assault examination despite the recording of an allegation of sexual assault in hospital. No interpreter was provided to take her statement nor was one provided later when the accused was in court on the assault charge. No effort was made to keep her informed about the progress of the case. The DPP decided that no prosecution would take place. In her case, she alleges negligence and reckless disregard of basic requirements in dealing with her complaints of rape and sexual and physical assault. This vulnerable woman was failed at every turn and her case raises serious issues about how we treat the victims of crime.

The State has already missed a November 2015 deadline to put into law the European Union's victims' directive, which sets out the minimum standards of protection a victim of crime should receive so this Bill urgently needs to be discussed and improved to ensure no more victims of crime endure this type of treatment by the State. It is important that a victim should not be treated by the courts as just another witness. A victim should receive support and protection to enable them to participate in legal proceedings without feeling further victimised by the system. Victims of crime deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, to be provided with information about the progress of any investigation or court proceedings and to be able to avail of interpretation services when they need them. Two of the most important rights this Bill gives victims is the right to be informed about any decision not to institute a prosecution of the offence and the right to request a review.

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