Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I find this discussion utterly demoralising and one of the worst reflections on this House I have witnessed. There is a massive problem in how our society deals with sexual crime in our criminal justice system, from inconsistent sentencing to traumatising victims by putting them on trial, by the trial through the court process and our pathetic conviction rates for sexual crimes, not to mention the broader cultural issues regarding consent. Nothing in this Bill addresses any of those matters. I am sorry to inform the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection that it is not a first step. The Bill is not going to achieve its aim. Even if we are generous and ignore the convoluted formula that applies in the Bill and state that it is sending a signal, we must ask what type of signal we are sending. When the suspended portion of a sentence - perhaps in instances which are the worst part of the initial sentence - is discounted for the calculation of the formula, the message being signalled is that if the offenders got away with it first time, they are not going to be subjected to this formula the second time around. That is an appalling message. The message being sent is that nothing is changing and that legislation in this House will be dealt with in a reactive, knee-jerk, emotional and tabloid-led way and not on the basis of the evidence available . That is really scary.

We commissioned a great deal of research on the Law Reform Commission's sentencing guidelines, etc. The experts in the relevant fields, including representatives of victims' groups, told us not to go down the road of introducing any more presumptive minimum sentencing regimes because they do not work and the evidence does not support them. Yet here we are doing exactly that. If the signal is to be so disrespectful to the victims of sexual crime by pretending to be doing something that will address their concerns, I do not want to be part of the pretence.

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