Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this motion is to allow the Government to enter into negotiations with the EU to allow Ireland to opt in to a change to EU directive 2012/29/EU on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. The proposal has five main objectives. The first is to improve victims' access to information. The second is to make victim protection align with the needs of victims and to make victims safer. The third is to give better access to specialist victim support. The fourth is to allow victims more effective participation in legal processes. The fifth is to achieve access to compensation for all victims, including in cross-border cases.

The proposed changes are significant and will provide victims with rights they do not currently have in the Irish system. We are very supportive of the objectives of this proposal. There are three areas that could create some issues for Ireland. The first of these is that there will be a change to the existing 2012 directive that moves the responsibility for compensation for victims to governments, and then afterwards let the State recover the money from those liable. This could have a greatly beneficial impact for victims. While there are concerns around the financial impact on the State, this could provide a much-needed impetus to reform victim compensation. It has been pointed out that the implications of changing or blending the relationship between the current civil process and the criminal process in our system will have to be carefully considered. I note these concerns, but I certainly think a solution needs to be found and that this can be done.

The second potential pitfall concerns the provision of a single-access helpline of first resort for all victims. While this is well-intentioned, the concern here is that a single helpline could act as a barrier to people coming forward. It is important that people do not have to keep repeating their stories more than once and that they have immediate access to tailored services for different crimes, especially in cases of rape, domestic violence, human trafficking or even financial crime. We want there to be access to a specialist as soon as possible in the process.

The final challenge is that the proposal will give victims the right to make challenges concerning decisions made about them in criminal cases. While this applies to all crimes and all victims, it is important to acknowledge that, like many societies, dealing with sexual violence remains one of the greatest challenges we face. I hope that it will be in cases of sexual violence that this part of the proposal could have the greatest impact.

We are already moving to amend our system to allow victims to have representation in such cases. The recent collapse of a rape trial after an unrepresented witness broke down is one example of how our system has failed to give equal access to representation and the same protection of the court to the alleged victim as to the accused. I hope this proposal can help us to improve the protections for victims in their engagement with the legal system, which is undoubtedly one of the obstacles for many victims in bringing their cases to court.

As I said, the purpose of this motion is to allow the Government and the Department to proceed and participate in negotiations to bring in these improvements EU-wide. I am glad to see the information from the Department, though, to the effective that it believes the difficulties existing can be resolved through those negotiations. As part of the working group, I commend the Department on the work it has done. There is no doubt about the objectives of this proposal being worthwhile and much needed, not just in a European context but also in an Irish one. I believe there is a clear path to improving the ways victims are treated by our criminal justice system. While, as ever, there will be challenges for the Government and the Oireachtas in implementing the directive, it is very clear that we should support the motion to opt in to the process and we in the Labour Party will be supporting this motion.

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