David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for their work on this. This Bill is quite unusual in that it focuses squarely on the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators. For the first time in legislation, it sets out the rights of victims and focuses on the victims as individuals with different needs and vulnerabilities. The rights provided for in this Bill are valuable and practical rights which would make a real difference to the experience of victims in the criminal justice system. Keep the victims in mind.

We contend that what the Senators proposed in their amendments would significantly expand the scope of the Bill to a range of bodies outside those intended by the EU directive. The Bill focuses primarily on applying the provisions of the directive to victims of criminal offences that are reported to the Garda Síochána. There are, of course, other agencies and bodies which have been mentioned that are investigative and also prosecute, such as local authorities, some Government Departments and specialist authorities such as the Revenue Commissioners, the Health and Safety Authority the Consumer Protection Commission and the Director of Corporate Enforcement. No obligations have been imposed on such bodies in the Bill since the offences they prosecute are mainly of an administrative or regulatory nature. It is principally on the basis that in the context of the directive, there is generally no direct victim of such offences. The victimisation for such offences is often indirect and impersonal, for example tax evasion will affect all tax payers.

Amendment No. 2 does not seem to have any actual effect. Are we on amendment No. 2?