Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the section. I have tabled an amendment to the section seeking to have the establishment of an ombudsman for victims of crime provided for. It is unfortunate that it has been ruled out of order. I accept the Leas-Chathaoirleach's ruling as I must, subject to all provisos. Senator Norris has already raised the nature of those rulings and the rule itself.

The concept of an ombudsman or one-stop-shop to which victims of crime could have recourse is provided for in recital 62 of the directive, which states that member states should consider developing sole points of access or one-stop-shops to address victims' multiple needs. Over many needs, we have seen a very patchy network of victims' support services across Ireland. We carried out some research on this in Trinity College some years ago. There is real inconsistency in terms of the supports available to victims. This legislation will do a lot to help that but we felt, and were supported by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in this regard, that the idea of an ombudsman for victims would be a worthwhile one to include in a Bill of this kind.

In its observations on this Bill, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission recommended a single point of contact for victims to register a complaint about their treatment in the criminal justice system and argued that this would assist in securing great transparency, consistency and foreseeability of treatment.

While the ruling has been made and we cannot debate the amendment itself, I again ask the Minister to consider the concept of the establishment of an ombudsman for victims. It should also be noted that part of our amendment also referred to reporting on general and specialist training, which is an issue dealt with in amendment No. 41 tabled by Senator Boyhan, which has been accepted, so I know we will be dealing with some of the issues that were raised in amendment No. 14 when we get to amendment No. 41.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for his latitude in allowing me to speak me to an amendment that was ruled out of order.