Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Section 5 of the 1993 Act places a mandatory obligation on a judge to take account of victim impact evidence with regard to sexual and violent offences. These are the categories of offences in which such a mandatory regime is most appropriate. This statutory obligation does not prevent a judge from taking victim impact evidence into account in other cases if he or she considers such evidence would be helpful in determining the appropriate sentence. Judges always have had this discretion and the creation of a mandatory obligation in certain categories of cases does not alter that discretion. This is unnecessary, as Senator Bacik anticipated in acceptance of the other amendments.