Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 10, after line 48, to insert the following:

7.—In an application under this section the court may make such order as it sees fit to facilitate legal representation of a person in respect of whom an offence has been committed or a family member as appropriate, where it is appropriate to do so.".

This amendment proposes to give power to the court to make an order to facilitate legal representation of a person in respect of whom an offence has been committed or a family member where the person in respect of whom the offence has been committed has died, "where it is appropriate to do so.".

This arises out of research into the need for separate legal representation for rape victims, in particular, that I carried out with a team from Trinity College Dublin in 1998. Following that research there was an amendment to the Sex Offenders Act 2001 to allow for legal aid to be granted and a counsel to be appointed where a certain application was made by the defence in a rape trial or a sexual offence trial. Therefore, there is already some limited legal representation provided for, in that respect and, more generally, through the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995, to provide advice to complainants in rape or sexual offence cases.

This amendment seeks to broaden that principle somewhat to allow a court make an order in other cases to facilitate legal representation. It is a matter in which there is increasing interest by victim support groups, particularly, as I stated, arising out of rape trials, but it has got a more general application also. I would ask the Minister to consider incorporating this at this point.

The Minister stated on the last occasion that he felt there might be an impediment to full legal representation, and that is not sought here. It could be, for example, a more limited representation purely to provide advice, as is currently provided for in the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 in respect of victims of sexual offences.