Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The Senator proposes that we include a specific reference to offences under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 in subsection (1)(b) of the new section 5 proposed to be inserted in the Criminal Justice Act 1993 by section 4 of this Bill. As it stands, section 5 applies to sexual offences, offences involving violence or the threat of violence and offences consisting of attempts to commit such offences. There was a good deal of consensus that these were the types of offences in which mandatory consideration of victim impact evidence was most appropriate. I am not aware of any representations from victim support groups for additions to the list. The report of the balance in criminal law review group which considered victim impact statements did not make recommendations for amendments to the categories of offences to which section 5 applies. The non-inclusion of an offence or category of offence in the section does not prevent the sentencing court from considering victim impact evidence where it takes the view that this would be helpful in the determination of the sentence in a particular case. Such a consideration is a matter left to the discretion of the court.

A specific amendment inserting an explicit reference to the 1997 Act would largely duplicate what is already contained in paragraph (b). With regard to the offences in the 1997 Act, it is clear that most of them involve violence or the threat of violence. The offences include assault under section 2, assault causing harm under section 3, assault causing serious harm under section 4, threats to kill or cause serious harm under section 5, syringe attacks under sections 6,7 and 8, and coercion under section 9. All these offences involve violence in some shape or form. Furthermore, paragraph (b), by its use of a generic phrase, captures many other offences which involve violence or the threat of violence, not just those included in the 1997 Act. The offence of robbery under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 is an obvious example.

While there is advice to a certain extent that the amendment is unnecessary, by proposing the explicit reference to the 1997 Act, the Senator is trying to capture a small number of offences under that Act which do not necessarily involve violence but which can cause substantial emotional distress to victims. The limitation in paragraph (b) is that it does not appear to capture offences involving solely emotional distress to the victim. The offence of harassment under section 10 of the 1997 Act is an example. A person engages in harassment of another person if he or she, by any means, including the use of a telephone, persistently follows, watches, pesters, besets or communicates with a person. To be guilty of an offence a person must seriously interfere with the other person's peace, privacy or cause alarm, distress or harm to that person.

Other offences under the 1997 Act do not necessarily involve violence but are likely to cause emotional distress, including the abduction of a child under sections 16 and 17. As mentioned, the non-inclusion of offences causing emotional distress does not prevent the court from taking into account the impact of the offence on the victim in sentencing but this is not a mandatory requirement. However, I recognise that a small number of offences do not necessarily involve violence or the threat of violence. I will bring forward an amendment on Report Stage in order to capture the offences which inflict emotional distress.