Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I support what has been said by Senator Eugene Regan in regard to the possible application of this provision in retrospective fashion. I note Senator Bacik's point on the possibility of there being constitutional difficulties in this regard, which is the answer that has previously been given by the Minister. I will be interested to hear his explanation as to what exactly these constitutional difficulties will be.

We are speaking about the passage of a law which will provide, in very exceptional circumstances where very solid and substantial evidence is available, for the possibility of a retrial. We are not talking about some sort of carte blanche law which will be used every day, and I trust the possibility of a retrial will be used in an exceptionally sparing fashion. However, any law has to be about justice. How can it be just or fair that particular victims against whom crimes were committed before the date this law is enacted will not be able to have those matters reopened in particular and very exceptional cases? As Senator Regan pointed out, we are not attempting to introduce a situation where a person or persons would be charged with an offence which was not an offence before this law was passed. We are obviously talking about cases where an offence which was a crime X number of months or years ago remains a crime, not new crimes.

I would be interested to know exactly what are the constitutional parameters which have caused people to suggest this law cannot apply retrospectively. Why are we now defining two categories of victims — those against whom crimes were previously committed and those against whom crimes will be committed next month or in 12 months? How can the Minister make that differentiation?

I look forward to the Minister's initial observations. I ask him to reflect carefully on the argument presented by Senator Regan on this section. If we are to have confidence not just in this law but in our entire body of law, justice must be seen to be fair and to be applied in a fair fashion, and the same law and arrangements should apply to every citizen. If this law is introduced in prospective fashion, as Senator Bacik said — these legal terms are new to me — we will clearly have two categories of victims, one where, if substantial new evidence is available, the victim or the victim's family can have the satisfaction of having a trial reintroduced, and a second category of victim on whom we shut the door and to whom we say go away. It is important there would not be such a variation in our law.

I look forward to the Minster's presentation of the case for his earlier argument on Second Stage on the difficulty of having this law applied retrospectively. It certainly applies retrospectively in a number of other jurisdictions, although I know different jurisdictions have different legal systems, different bodies of law and different foundations of law. However, if there was a genuine will in this House or in the country to ensure all victims were treated equally and that there would not be two categories of victims, we would be in a position to find our way around this problem.