Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Minister is on the record as acknowledging the trauma often involved for victims and survivors going through the judicial process in the first place. The system essentially makes it necessary for them to go through it again to seek a protection order on the release of the perpetrator. This is why this legislation allows the victim and the State to put in place the protections at a much earlier stage. We have had many discussions on this. The committee was dealing with a miscellaneous provisions Bill last week and we heard victims again speak directly about the issue of counselling notes. This is something we need to deal with. What should happen for a survivor is that conviction is day one of rebuilding their lives.

If it is day one in rebuilding their lives but a clock is ticking in the victim's mind counting down to the perpetrator being released, creating genuine fear, the success that might have been is undone. Is the Minister amenable to at least allowing the Bill to pass First Stage and Second Stage so that we can deliberate on the nuances in committee?

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