Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Again, we will beg to differ. On the point I made, I do not think one could equate amendment No. 50, which is pretty definite and tries to bring clarity to the serving of a book of evidence, with these amendments. On the point I made on whether this could be used by an offender, if he or she had a very busy legal team, he or she could suggest that in fulfilment of the proposed section 7(1) which states:

A victim shall as soon as practicable, be given information by an Garda Síochána ... by the Courts Service ... [by] the Director of Public Prosecutions about the following matters ... the progress of the investigation of the offence ... [and equally] the progress of the prosecution, if any, taken against any alleged offender or alleged offenders and, in particular, the date, time and location of each event listed in subsection (2)

a difficulty could arise. I hazard a guess that the progress of the investigation of the offence would cause severe difficulties and if the offender and his or her legal team found that the victim was being given far too much information, an effort would be made by a creative counsel to suggest that the prosecution effort or the investigation of the offence has been compromised.