Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the opportunity to speak on the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) (Amendment) Bill 2018 and compliment Deputy O'Callaghan on identifying the anomaly in the 2017 legislation. It is only a one-line amendment, but it has a huge, empowering impact on victims coming forward. Victims need to know their rights and what is ahead of them. They need to know the State is there to support them and that is the real thrust of this amendment, hence the support from the Minister, our colleagues across the House and all Members here this evening.

As spokesperson for children, I conducted research as to how this might impact children. The Children's Rights Alliance launch a score card every year and it gave a grade of C-plus to the Government when the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act was announced last year. The Children's Rights Alliance also pointed out there were certain provisions of the Bill that it would like to see amended to do with the voice of the child. Those amendments are probably no different from what Deputy O'Callaghan is looking at doing this evening, to ensure the voice of the child is reflected and represented and victims who are minors have similar rights because the consequences for a child are no different from those for an adult. It is as traumatising for them.

Those observations are on pages 84 to 88 of the Children's Rights Alliance report card for 2018 in the section on child victims of crime and I would ask the Minister of State to look at the Children's Rights Alliance recommendations.

I attended the joint policing committee, JPC, meeting in Galway yesterday, an organisation of which the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, was a member before his elevation to office. The chief superintendent announced the protected services unit, which I welcome. We will have two detective sergeants and ten detective gardaí in new Garda buildings in Galway, which is welcome. It is a recognition of the increase in the numbers reporting incidents of rape and sexual assaults and will give the gardaí on the ground the ability to support the student body, where there have been 50 such reports in the past six months. When setting up such a unit, we should row in behind the gardaí in that unit and keep the same numbers on the beat on the ground.

I am very supportive of what has been recommended here this evening.

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