Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the progression of this Bill, which contains a number of important provisions with regard to both sexual offences and human trafficking. New national referral mechanisms for victims of human trafficking will be a very positive and important step and stand as the type of additional human trafficking measures for which Sinn Féin and many others have long advocated. Likewise, measures that will allow the Government to ratify the second operational protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are critically important.

It is particularly welcome that we will see the implementation of the O'Malley review recommendations strengthening the rights of victims, which is long overdue. My colleagues, Deputies Ó Laoghaire and Martin Kenny, introduced Private Members' legislation in this regard back as far as 2019.

As spokesperson on foreign affairs and defence, I want to touch on one aspect. The Department has availed of this opportunity to use the Bill to address specific matters related to the Defence Forces. That is a positive and constructive step. There was a fear that we would be waiting for defence-specific legislation either later in the year or even next year.

I want to put on record again the huge esteem in which the members of the Women of Honour group are held by all Members of this House. I recall the first time I heard the phrase "women of honour" was when I was in my car listening to a radio documentary that was produced by Ms Katie Hannon on RTÉ. I am very conscious throughout all of this debate that when we are talking about sexual crimes, there is a reason why a provision for anonymity is provided for victims of sexual crime. For the Women of Honour group and too many others, however, that anonymity was not an option. They had to tell their stories in order to bring about action. We owe them great due for telling their stories and bringing us to the point where there is at least recognition of the need for cultural and systemic change within the Defence Forces and the need for legislation like this. However, we know there are anomalies when it comes to the Defence Forces that need to be addressed. I hope they can be addressed in this legislation or, if not, that we will get a commitment from the Government that they will be addressed. Quite clearly, the biggest complexity is for crimes committed outside of this State which, obviously, when we are dealing with the Defence Forces, can create huge complexity. There are obviously concerns that issues outside this State that pertain to outside of the country, particularly on overseas missions, will still be subject to investigation, essentially, by the Defence Forces rather than An Garda Síochána. This Bill will ensure than anything inside the State will be under the jurisdiction of An Garda, and that is correct. However, there are serious questions to be asked. I ask the Minister of State to indicate in his closing remarks whether it is proposed by the Government to bring forward separate legislation to deal with issues pertaining to outside of the State or whether the status quowould be applied there. If we recognise that there is a difficulty in terms of internal domestic issues and we need to move beyond the court martial procedure to investigations by An Garda Síochána and the civic court, then the obvious question is, why would it be different if the same crime is committed outside of this jurisdiction. It would be helpful if the Minister of State could outline in his closing remarks whether the potential legal issues pertaining to outside of the jurisdiction have been examined by either the Department of Justice or Department of Defence, and the outworking of any deliberations that have taken place.

Finally, if the Minister cannot answer those questions today, he might indicate or express willingness, at least, that the Government will be open to discussing these matters on Committee Stage because we need to provide answers in all these areas. There are quite a number of developments in terms of addressing the concerns of the Women of Honour group. We now need to see real actions that we can point out to these women who, as a result of their bravery, have given such a service in telling their stories.

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