Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I am happy to support the amendment in principle. I accept that it is a significant departure but it causes great distress to victims, and particularly to their families, when the accused raises provocation as a defence and the family feels that the character of their deceased relative has been impugned without any possibility of a response. Many years ago I spoke about this to Advocates for Victims of Homicide, AdVIC. It has called for such an amendment. It is also a recommendation of the expert group as the Minister said.

I want to raise two points, however, to improve the wording of the amendment. They are almost typographical errors. Subsection (b) states: "notwithstanding section 1(f), the person may be called as a witness and be asked, and the prosecution may ask any other witness,". Should that not be "or" the prosecution or "and/or"? If the accused is not taking the stand the prosecution can ask any other witness, as an alternative. The same is true if the accused does take the stand. The present phrase suggests that the prosecution can ask another witness only where the accused has been called as a witness. Will the Minister please check that point?

Subparagraph (ii) of subsection (b) reads "would show that the person in respect of whom the offence was alleged to have been committed is of good character". I would say "is or was of good character" because the person may be deceased. In my example the character of a deceased person has been impugned, for example, where the defence alleges provocation in a murder trial. In that case "the person in respect of whom the offence was alleged to have been committed" is deceased but his or her character is being attacked. That is the sort of case the Minister seeks to address here. The phrase "is of good character" implies that it refers only to someone who is alive but is incapacitated, which is the other circumstance covered by the legislation. Will the Minister consider these two small changes to improve the wording of this provision?