Results 9,101-9,120 of 14,127 for speaker:David Stanton

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: This amendment makes a change to the commencement provisions of the Bill to allow that certain provisions, particularly provisions relating to the use of screens in courtrooms to prevent a victim from having visual contact with the accused person, may be commenced for different courts or areas at different times. The purpose of the amendment is to allow for a phased roll-out of the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: The Senator is correct and we are proposing 30 amendments today. The majority of these are technical amendments, updating the Bill for criminal evidence provisions introduced by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. We passed another Bill recently and we are just updating the Bill to take account of that. We are doing much stuff at the same time. A small number of other amendments...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I thank Senators for their work on this. This Bill is quite unusual in that it focuses squarely on the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators. For the first time in legislation, it sets out the rights of victims and focuses on the victims as individuals with different needs and vulnerabilities. The rights provided for in this Bill are valuable and practical rights which would make a...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: It defines the term "investigative authority" but does not make any provision for the use of the word in the body of the Bill. The term does not appear in the body of the Bill so the definition is effectively meaningless.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I am dealing with what is before me. Amendment No. 3 aims to apply all the provisions of Part 2 to an authorised person on whose functions relating to the investigation or bringing the prosecution of offences or both are conferred by an enactment. The definition proposed is overly broad, capturing all statutory bodies with a power to investigate and prosecute any offence including those of...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I do acknowledge that there are other bodies who investigate and prosecute. There are many of these, about 30 altogether. The majority investigate and prosecute offences of a more regulatory nature which, as the Senator said, do not have direct victims in the same way as offences investigated by the Garda Síochána. The approach we are taking in this Bill is to focus on offences...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I thank the Senators for their sincerity, work and thinking on this matter. I am always open to considering what the last speaker has suggested. There are other issues. This is focused on offences that are criminal in nature and are investigated by the gardaí. We are focusing on this where there is a clear victim. We also have to think about the structures, powers and capacities of...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: Amendment No. 4 inserts a new provision into the Bill to repeal two sections of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, which are being expanded upon in this Bill. This is a technical amendment to ensure the smooth commencement of provisions of the 2017 Act and in this Bill, some of which are both amending the same provisions of the Criminal Evidence Act 1992. Nothing in this amendment...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: Unfortunately, I cannot speak to an amendment that has been ruled out of order.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: Resources will be allocated as required. Perhaps we can talk about it afterwards but I cannot go into this here.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I thank the Senators for their thoughts on this. The impact or the effect of the amendment would be to require that sufficient information be given to a victim to allow him or her to decide whether to request a review of any decision not to proceed with or to discontinue an investigation, not to prosecute or to discontinue a prosecution or a decision to deal with a person other than by...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: The Senator makes the point for me in many ways by saying that a person in an office will make the decision and that is sufficient information. I would hope that he or she would be encouraged to give as much information as is needed to a victim in the circumstances to enable the victim to decide whether to seek a review. That is what we are talking about here. It would be impossible for...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I am open to any other suggestions. However, section 7(2)(d)(i) and (ii) state that information shall be provided in relation to a decision not to prosecute a person for the alleged offence and that a summary of the reasons for the decision must be given. It also refers to information regarding the victim's right to request a review of the decision referred to in section 7(2)(d)(i) and the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: Amendment No. 7 provides that the prosecutor shall inform the court of the outcome of an assessment where the assessment has identified special protection needs. It is not entirely clear what is meant by the outcome of the assessment. If the outcome of the assessment is understood as the report of the results of an assessment and that report were to be given to the judge, there would also...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I note from the amendment that the prosecutor "shall inform the court of the outcome of that assessment at the beginning of the trial of the offence at the latest". There would be no choice. It would have to happen. Section 18 provides that the prosecution shall have regard to the assessment report in determining what, if any, special measures to apply for. The prosecution will be in a...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: That is implied. As it stands, there is no reason the prosecution cannot have a free hand. If we were to include what is proposed, it would actually tie the prosecution to making information available that might not need to be made available and, in some cases, should not be.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I would have to consider it very carefully because there are other issues to be considered. There is a reference to an assessment at the beginning of the trial and information being prejudicial during it. There are other things implied also. I do not believe the amendment is needed. It is not necessary in the first place and would possibly do more harm than good.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I am not sure where that came from. It certainly did not come from me. I am happy to accept any amendments that I can accept and if I am persuaded that they will not pose difficulties or that they are necessary. Amendment No. 15 is to be inserted into section 13 of the Criminal Evidence Act. However, it is not exactly clear where it is supposed to go. The words "the relevant offence" do...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: I have listened carefully and I do think the amendments have merit. They are worthy of consideration and there is no doubt about that. However, as drafted, there is a risk they could lead to inconsistent treatment of people in the same circumstances. We must give a lot of consideration to avoid unintended consequences or even the constitutionality of it. A better place to look at this...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (27 Sep 2017)

David Stanton: The Senator is right when he says we have the privilege of having expert analysis from the Department, the Office of the Attorney General and beyond. The expert advice to us is not to accept these amendments for the reasons given. This is the expert advice. I will be more than happy to accept amendments if I am advised otherwise, but I am advised by the Office of the Attorney General and...