Rónán Mullen (Independent)

While I thank the Minister of State for his response, I am unconvinced by much of what he has said. Reference was made to the Human Rights Commission's concern that in criminal legislation there might be some kind of incentivising of trafficked persons to give evidence in such a way as might — I think what is being suggested — bring into question the possibility of a fair trial or that the person being accused of trafficking might be able to claim that the process had been corrupted. I do not believe any of this arises. There is no suggestion of conditionality in either my proposed amendment or that of the Labour Party. I will defer to Senator Alex White who is a barrister of much more experience than I am.

What is being proposed is a code of victims' rights in respect of victims of trafficking. If anything that seems to suggest that it having been established that a person was a victim of trafficking, which would seem to imply that the business of prosecuting the trafficker had already been taken care of or was well in hand, the person who is known to be a victim of trafficking would be entitled to avail of the benefits as set out in paragraphs (a) to (q). As there is no conditionality there can be no question of the matter which was of concern to the Human Rights Commission arising. There is no suggestion that these rights are conditional on assistance being given by victims of trafficking to the process of prosecution or investigating offences and prosecuting them.

To some degree we are dealing with the curse of the party Whip system. I note that Deputy Shatter wrote a letter to The Irish Times to this effect yesterday. I am convinced of the sincerity of my colleagues across the floor in Fianna Fáil. I have been impressed by the speeches on both Second Stage and Committee Stage of Senators O'Donovan, Mary White and McDonald. Yet there appears to be no give from the Government. We are getting responses to our proposals which are about parrying our proposals and not on the basis of very strong argument.

I welcome the high-level group and encourage its work. I am pleased that NGOs are involved in its work. However, we have not heard any consistent, comprehensive, coherent or persuasive argument for not including either my amendment or that of Senator Alex White and the Labour Party.