Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very happy to say a few words on this important legislation, the amended directive on the rights, supports and protection of victims of crime, which I believe will improve the 2012 directive that is already in place. It will respond in a more targeted and comprehensive way to victims of crime seeking to have their rights vindicated, particularly in another member state. This includes procedural rights and the right to receive a decision on compensation from the offender at the end of criminal proceedings. This is what I would call underpinning legislation in that it underpins one of the four freedoms; namely, the freedom of movement. There is no point speaking about freedom of movement for people to travel for work, study, retirement or leisure unless those people can rely on the protection of the laws of the country they are now living in or visiting, and unless they can access public and other services the same as citizens who reside in that country and unless the authorities in that country vindicate their rights as EU citizens. None of that would be possible, and it certainly would not be workable, if we did not have this whole system of what I call EU underpinning legislation. We have a lot of it, from the co-ordination of social security to recognising qualification rights. We have it for the European health insurance card, which allows anyone travelling to access healthcare in another member state, and in this directive we are discussing here today.

We already have a victims' rights directive in place, which lays down rights for all victims of crime, including the right to information and the right to support and protection based on the victim's individual needs. As I said earlier, there is also the right to receive a decision on compensation from the offender at the end of criminal proceedings. However, the directive we are now working with is the 2012 directive. Since its implementation, the European Commission has assessed the impact of that legislation, as it does with a lot of legislation. In doing so, it sees how the legislation is working and if it actually achieves what it sets out to in the directive. By doing this, the Commission often identifies shortcomings and proposes amended legislation. As the Minister of State will be aware, we have thousands of pieces of such legislation at this stage.

In this legislation, the Commission identified a number of shortcomings, particularly with regard to victims not receiving adequate or accessible information and vulnerable victims such as children, older people, people with disabilities, victims of hate crime or victims in detention. The truth is that they do not always benefit from a timely assessment of their needs. There were also some issues around access to compensation and lack of legal advice. This directive sets out to deal with some of those shortcomings, and it also sets out to integrate some other newer pieces of EU legislation since 2012, such as the directive on combating violence against women, the directive on sexual abuse and child pornography, the counter-terrorism directive and a number of other directives. The Commission set out to integrate those pieces of legislation into this newer directive. In other words, it will take cognisance of them.

The legislation itself has been broadly welcomed by many groups. However, there is an issue in that we have a common law system, unlike most other member states. That has implications for our justice system and indeed for our own citizens in our own country. The briefing note we received highlighted three main issues. The first is the issue of compensation and whether this will in some way place an obligatory requirement on the Judiciary to consider compensation. That is not how we do our business here normally and there could be significant cost implications. I believe there will be a nice bit of work required on that. Regarding the provision of helplines, a number of groups that support victims have identified that having just a single helpline could be a significant barrier to those looking for assistance. There is also an issue around the right of victims to review decisions made about them in court processes. Again, that could have significant implications for our legal system. I will be interested to hear what the Minister of State has to say. He has already said that we can largely accommodate those concerns but the detail will be extremely important.

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