Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin for his work on this issue and for the way in which we are engaging on it. I hope we will engage to find a way forward. As the Deputy has said, he discussed this issue with my colleague, Deputy McEntee, on Committee Stage. It is an issue my Department has been considering and one on which I have spoken in recent weeks because I share the concern. We all want to reach the same point in this regard.

I am particularly conscious of the issue in my dual role because, as Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, I have heard about it directly from student union groups and from the Union of Students in Ireland, USI. Indeed, the USI came together with An Garda Síochána to run an awareness campaign around spiking and its changing nature. We have seen some relatively new things such as people being injected and spiked that way. It is also important that staff in premises know what to look out for. This is a very serious issue and should be treated as such. It is true to say that there are limited data but, having said that, the number of reports of spiking has increased. We have also seen that in the UK's figures. The Deputy will be aware that, as I have said, we have launched an awareness campaign with the USI and others.

I will read the official response into the record of the House. It is quite important to do so as we try to progress this matter. As noted by my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on Committee Stage, section 12 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 provides for a general poisoning offence and already criminalises anyone who spikes a drink. Section 12 applies to anyone who intentionally or recklessly administers a substance capable of interfering substantially with another person's bodily functions, which explicitly includes unconsciousness or sleep and would certainly encompass an intent to stupefy or overpower. It is important to emphasise that where a sexual assault, which carries a ten-year maximum sentence, or rape, which carries a maximum of a life sentence, has taken place, these offences may be charged separately. The other existing provision relates to intent to commit a rape or sexual assault. While this is a complex area of law, for present purposes, an attempt can be charged when the perpetrator takes sufficiently proximate steps towards the commission of the crime and has the intent to complete it.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin's proposed offence is, in effect, poisoning, with the additional element of an attempt to overcome or stupefy the victim and to thereby engage in sexual activity with them. I fully understand the Deputy's motivation. We need to do work with regard to where there is a gap in practice. The Deputy has outlined his view on some of those areas. Because we do not want a vacuum or for anyone following these proceedings to think anything to the contrary, if a poisoning is used to commit a sexual offence, that offence should clearly be charged and would carry the penalties I have set out. I would like to engage further on this because absolutely nobody wants to make it in any way more difficult to prosecute than it is under the existing poisoning provision. Advice I have taken raises some concern in that regard. We want to see more successful prosecutions rather than fewer so I would like to tease that through. I will also be requesting further information and observations in this area from the Garda Commissioner.

On the question raised by Deputies Ó Ríordáin and Sherlock as to whether this is a space we could consider further when this Bill moves to the Seanad, by way of a Private Member's Bill or through the Joint Committee on Justice, I would be very happy to do that. I would be very happy to work collaboratively with the Deputies and their colleagues in this regard.

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