Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the measures he has put in place as a direct response to the fall in the number of rape cases coming before the courts while at the same time the incidence of sexual offences is increasing; his views on whether greater supports are needed for rape victims between the reporting of the offence and the trial and on whether victims should have separate legal representation and a right of audience at a rape trial; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5308/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The recently published provisional headline crime statistics for 2004 show that sexual offences generally decreased by 17%, or 329 cases, compared with 2003. I am glad to note a decrease of 28%, or 403 cases, in sexual assault. I am of course concerned to note an increase in the number of cases of rape of a female and rape under section 4 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990.

I assure the Deputy that any incident of rape or sexual assault reported to the Garda Síochána is fully investigated and that, subsequently, a file is forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions for direction as to whether a prosecution should proceed.

As I previously outlined to the House, there is a very high attrition rate in rape cases in Ireland, and a large number of cases reported to the gardaí do not reach the prosecution stage for a variety of reasons. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that decisions regarding the number of offences reported to and investigated by the Garda which proceed to the courts are a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions. As the Deputy is aware, the Director of Public Prosecutions is statutorily independent in the performance of his functions, and it would, therefore, be inappropriate for me to comment on his decisions.

Regarding the measures which the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform can take, it has provided joint funding for comprehensive research into attrition rates in rape cases. The research, which is entitled The Understanding of Attrition, Early Withdrawal, the Trial Process and Identifying Possible Changes to Support Complainants in Rape Cases, is being carried out by the department of law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and the Rape Crisis Network Ireland. The research commenced in 2003 and is expected to be completed next year.

That research should, I hope, provide greater understanding as to why some victims choose not to report cases to the Garda, what can be done about under-reporting and why, of the cases that are reported, only a relatively small percentage result in a court hearing. Regarding any need the victim might have for legal advice, as the Deputy knows, the Legal Aid Board offers legal advice and, in certain circumstances, representation to complainants in cases of rape or serious sexual assault. In addition, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has provided funding to the Rape Crisis Network for work of that nature.

Regarding the matter of separate legal representation and a right of audience for victims, the Sex Offenders Act 2001 provides for separate legal representation for complainants in cases of rape and serious sexual assault where an application is made to the court in the course of a trial to adduce evidence or cross-examine the complainant on past sexual history. Any such application is made in the absence of the jury.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

That provision represents a serious effort to allay some of the concerns of complainants in rape trials without breaching the fundamental principle of an accused's right to a fair trial. The legal advice available to my Department when the 2001 Act was being prepared was that full separate legal representation in the presence of the jury would, in the words of the Law Reform Commission in its Report on Rape — LRC 24 — 1988 — deprive the accused of "the long standing benefits of a criminal trial conducted in 'due course of law'".

Section 5 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 provides that in determining sentence for a sexual offence or one involving violence or the threat of violence a court may, where necessary, receive evidence or submissions concerning any effect, long term or otherwise, of the offence on the person against whom it was committed and shall, upon application by that person, hear his or her evidence as to the effect of the offence.

The Deputy might also be interested to know that I have asked the national steering committee on violence against women to examine the recommendations made in the Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland, or SAVI, report, which was published by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in 2002. That report contains recommendations on awareness and education regarding rape and sexual assault as well as recommendations regarding service development and further research. The national steering committee will commence work on that very shortly and I hope that it will help reduce the number of rapes occurring.

Following recent discussions with the Rape Crisis Network and other victims' organisations, other initiatives are also under consideration.

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister accept that we should set aside playing around with figures and statistics? He quotes figures showing a reduction last year, when there was an increase of 27% in aggravated sexual assaults, but I am not interested in that. We have a serious problem, and I would like the Minister to confront the facts. In the last full year, 2003-04, 1,460 cases of sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault were reported or made known to the Garda, but only 117 cases resulted in a conviction. The story is similar regarding rape of a female or under section 4. Of 370 cases reported in 2003, only 13 resulted in a conviction.

Surely those figures are horrendous, taking into account the heinous nature of the crime involved. Surely the Minister has some views regarding the cause of attrition. Is it because of a lack of counselling and support for the rape victims in such cases? Is it because of the long delays before trials? Is there a case for fast-tracking such cases and having earlier trials? Is there generally a case for more victim support from the time of the first report?

Does the Minister accept that those figures — actual statistics rather than games with percentages up or down — are much the same as in previous years? We have a massive problem with a horrendous crime which must be confronted. We must see it through the eyes of the victims to see what can be done to achieve a higher rate of conviction and, consequently, one hopes, a lower rate of crime.

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I agree with the Deputy that those figures pose very serious cause for concern. In the equation resulting in such a low rate of trials and convictions in rape cases there are several variables, one of which is the rate of reporting. However, we are dealing here with the difference between reported cases and outcomes. The Deputy should know that in preparing my response to his question, I asked my Department to give me some figures on the rate of reporting of rape cases in Ireland. It struck me that the figures were strange.

Curiously, right across the period from 1995 to 2000, in a comparative study — I can give the Deputy the figures later — Ireland had a very high rate of reporting of rape offences, something shared with Sweden and other countries. Per 100,000 of the population in the relevant period, Ireland averaged approximately 22 or 23 offences, whereas such places as Spain averaged fewer than five. We had between four and five times the reported rate of rape that the Spanish had, and that applies across Europe. It is strange that countries that one might think progressive and advanced share with us a high rate of reporting. I make that point to show that the stereotype that Ireland is a place where people do not report rapes seems not to be borne out by those figures.

However, the Deputy is asking a different question, namely, what happens to cases when they are reported. There are two issues that we should take into account, the first being the question of delay. I have asked the National Crime Council, chaired by Pádraic White, to investigate why things seem to take so long in Ireland compared with the United Kingdom, for example, regarding criminal prosecutions. I met Mr. White recently. He told me he will bring that report to me in the very near future and that they had an interesting analysis of the reason the Irish prosecution system takes longer than others. Delay and the anticipation of a lengthy delay must be a negative as regards victims going ahead with this process.

The second point, and it is one on which the study I have commissioned should be of some assistance to us, is that I do not know whether the Director of Public Prosecutions is operating on the basis of requiring a higher standard of probability of success than that required in the United Kingdom. I am not in a position to tell the Deputy whether that is so, but he is independent and he has to make a decision on whether there is corroborative detail——

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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That is not the problem.

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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——or whether the case in question will end up as a "he did, he did not" type of case.

The other point that I would accept is that, psychologically, there may be a significant withdrawal rate among complainants. People may say they are no longer interested in pursuing the matter——

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Yes.

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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——and in that context it may be, and I believe this is what the Deputy is driving at, that anticipation of an adversarial trial in unsympathetic circumstances may cause many women, in particular those who have been the subject of rape offences, to abandon their claims. That is something we would have to study carefully to determine the counter-measures we could take to ensure that factor is not an active one.

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Of the 47 cases the DPP prosecuted, 27 resulted in convictions but the problem is that there were 412 cases that year. The problem, which arose long before the actual initiation of prosecution, is the long delay, the vulnerability of the victim and the fact that adequate support is not available for the victim from the point of view of counselling, mentoring and treating them as victims rather than mere witnesses in a case taken by the State. I urge the Minister to take this issue seriously.

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I take it seriously and I accept that of the 47 cases prosecuted, 27 cases resulted in conviction. That is a fairly high conviction rate. The question, however, is what happened to the 400 cases in which there was no——

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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The 95% of cases that did not result in a charge.

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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Yes. I am not in a position, without putting myself in the DPP's chair, to inform the Deputy of the reason those cases did not go ahead. Obviously, in some cases, the alleged victim says she does not want to proceed with it. In other cases, presumably, the DPP says he is not satisfied with the evidence available to him. I do not know whether issues such as intoxication or absence of corroboration affect the DPP's decisions. These are the matters I could speculate about, as could the Deputy, but it is something on which we need a scientific database from which to operate rather than simply saying we have a hunch that something is not right.

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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A total of 95% of the cases reported resulted in no convictions.