Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

With due respect, these amendments do affect children because if people are children when they go to make a complaint to An Garda Síochána, that is when they are initiating their concern around a potential criminal action against them. In respect of the experience of children as they seek to navigate our legal system and our courts, we see a huge fall-off where people drop out of the system. We see this in the case of sexual assaults, certainly for women, and we believe it is true for children. I do not have the figures to hand but I know they are also high.

People start a prosecution and drop out because they are frustrated by delays or obstructions in the legal process. It becomes a weapon that can be used effectively by somebody and it can be a form of revictimisation, as delaying a case can ensure a child will pass the threshold of 18 and have to give evidence in person. The distress created by the person knowing he or she may pass the threshold of being 18 and be forced to testify is distress that is visited upon a child. There is concern. The example the Minister of State gave was one of a case going to court ten years after somebody went to a garda versus someone who went last year. I hope those who make statements to gardaí in respect of being victims of crimes as children are not, as a standard practice, waiting ten years. I hope the more normal practice is that the procedures flow from the initial statement to the Garda. There is a concern about distress, potential disadvantage and perhaps a disincentive to pursue justice being visited upon children by the fact they are perhaps 16 or 17 and they may hit the age of 18 before the case and they could lose the right to video testimony.

With respect, I suggest that if technical issues about exactly where this is placed have been identified as concerns they are to be fixed on Report Stage in the Dáil. They are minor technical matters regarding the exact section. We see these as procedural changes. The Government has very often had to make adjustments on Report Stage. If we had a separate Report Stage debate it would be an opportunity for any such tidying. We cannot allow ourselves to lose the substantive points because of such technicalities. It is something for the Department to address as it navigates the next Stage of the Bill.