Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can assure the Deputy that the Government is taking this issue very seriously. It is almost impossible not to have noticed, read about or listened to descriptions of a trial that was taking place in Belfast in recent weeks. That came to a head yesterday when it concluded. It raises many concerns at all sorts of levels but it is important to reinforce, for anybody listening today, the point that the trial was in a different jurisdiction. It would not and could not have developed in this jurisdiction in the way it did. Therefore, it is important for us all to reassure victims of sexual abuse in Ireland that, while we need to focus all the time on improving our legal and judicial systems, their approach is very different from that taken by the courts in Belfast in recent weeks. In this jurisdiction, for example, there is a legal prohibition on the identification of a rape accused before conviction. The public, although not the press, is excluded from the court from hearings. There is also a very strong protection of the victim. There is clear punishment, with a maximum sentence of up to three years, for breaking the law in that area.

We have sought to introduce legislation to ensure that we try to protect victims of sexual abuse and ensure that, when there are court hearings, the anonymity of people who are being accused and, of course, people taking cases is protected. Even after a trial, a victim's anonymity is protected. We need to send a signal out that we should not be drawing conclusions about what might happen here from what happened in a different jurisdiction if people are brave enough to come forward. There is undoubtedly a chill factor that comes from the coverage we have seen of the trial we witnessed in recent weeks. As policymakers, we need to respond to that and make sure there is an appropriate response here, but we also need to point out that this is a different jurisdiction from the North and we need to be careful we do not draw parallels between two court systems.

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