Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Not all victims want to be informed of the temporary release of the offender. It may bring back memories of the pain and hurt he or she experienced. To accept the amendment in this form would be to cast a very definite legal obligation on the Minister to notify the victim in every case where the temporary release of an offender takes place. That would cause considerable practical difficulty in that it would require the Minister to maintain an updated address for every victim of an offence. It would not simply be a matter of providing for a legal obligation to inform the victim of the release of an offender. It would also place a possible legal obligation on the Minister to maintain a contemporary record of where victims of offences have gone. I welcome the discussion because it raises a number of other issues. However, I cannot accept the amendment because the Minister would then have to advise victims who do not want to hear about their offence or offender that the offender has been at large for a number of days under certain conditions and it would be possible to meet him or her.

Senator Walsh referred to practice. Currently, the Garda victim liaison officer advises the victim at the time of the court proceeding of the option of advising the prison service of the offender's interest in temporary release. Victims who wish to receive information about temporary release have a number of options. A victim of a serious sexual or violent offence may ask the prison service through the prisons victim liaison officer to notify the Garda prior to the release of the perpetrator from prison on temporary release or at the end of his or her sentence. A victim may also ask to be notified if an offender is to be given temporary release. Those facilities are advised by the Garda victim liaison officer.

However, the Department's victims' charter is being revised and I have asked officials to examine a specific reference to this issue. Many amendments tabled relating to victims, while well intentioned, are not appropriate to the legislation but are highly apt in the context of the codification measure proposed by the Minister. If we are to get the balance right between the offender, the victim, the court and the public interest, that must be structured into the entire system. For example, if leaving it as a practice in the victims' charter, there should be an obligation on the court at the time of sentence to explain the nature of temporary release in written form to the victim. Such an amendment requires an examination of the entire criminal justice system and the codification on which the Minister has decided to embark will provide an opportunity to raise those issues.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.