Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 and in particular, section 4, which places a statutory obligation on the Government to carry out a review within three years. Three years after enactment the Government did its job in the sense that it appointed an independent person, Ms Maura Butler, in July 2020. She was to conclude her review and to report within three months but that is almost four years ago now. That has not happened for various reasons, one being that Ms Butler had been appointed to something else, but she had been appointed to conduct the review a month before that. Here we are, nearly four years later and the Government has failed to comply with its statutory obligation. I was told in October and again in December last year that expressions of interest had been sought, a panel was in place and the Government was about to appoint somebody. Today I learned that the Government is doing none of what it promised and is now going to get the Department of Justice to carry out a review. This is unacceptable, shocking and not independent and is particularly concerning as we are dealing here with a very vulnerable cohort of women.

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