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

I am open to any other suggestions. However, section 7(2)(d)(i) and (ii) state that information shall be provided in relation to a decision not to prosecute a person for the alleged offence and that a summary of the reasons for the decision must be given. It also refers to information regarding the victim's right to request a review of the decision referred to in section 7(2)(d)(i) and the procedure for requesting the review. It is quite comprehensive. One would expect that every effort would be made to give as much information in the summary of reasons for the decision as is necessary. I would expect that to be the case because this Bill changes the whole tone and approach to victims.

The issue here is that the word "sufficient" is too subjective to put into legislation, and I think Senator Bacik agrees with me, that one could not work it. I take the spirit of what is intended. Senators want as much information as possible to be made available so that when someone is making a decision on whether or not to request a review of the decision not to prosecute, he or she would have as much information as he or she needs. The spirit of the legislation flows from that anyway. I will reflect on this a little but I am not sure how we would make that change or add something because it is implied that it is there already. If someone has something more specific, perhaps we can do it, but at this Stage I would ask the Senator to withdraw it and we can move on and get the rest of it done. Many of the amendments are very technical so it should not take long.