Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

It might be helpful if the Attorney General's advice were made available to us and the Minister may be in a position to present us with same in the near future. I am a million miles from being in any way expert in this matter but the kernel of my argument is that we are not attempting to create new law in the sense of new offences. We are not suggesting that some event or some intervention which previously was not an offence should now become an offence. In my view we are not interfering with Article 15.5. We are speaking about cases where an offence which is now against the law was previously also against the law. I do not fully comprehend the Minister's argument as to how we are breaching our constitutional framework. The Minister speaks of the separation of powers. It would be up to the courts to use this section. The Oireachtas is not issuing an instruction to use this section. However, from a layman's perspective, by means of this Bill the Oireachtas is willing to give powers in an extremely limited number of cases for the courts to consider whether on the basis of new evidence, for example, a case should be retried. Our argument is whether this is possible retrospectively. I appreciate the Minister's comments about those people who believe that justice may not have been done but while this application will only apply prospectively rather than retrospectively, we are now very clearly defining two categories of victims and this is very regrettable.

I would be interested in hearing the Attorney General's opinion. I ask the Minister to reflect on this request during the latter stages and when the Bill goes to the other House. It is not up to other jurisdictions or parliaments to set the body of law for this country but at least we have seen indications from afar that it is possible to consider retrospective application. The Minister's mind appears to be closed on the matter but I hope he would be willing to examine the situation again and try to bring some degree of redress to people who believe they are becoming very second class citizens and second class victims as a result of the way this new proposed law is to be written.