Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has given a very cogent response, but there is a bigger issue as Senator Higgins has pointed out. The bigger issue is the need to look beyond our current adversarial system in terms of protections for vulnerable witnesses. We see in other jurisdictions such as England and Wales, which have a traditional adversarial system, recognition we do need to put in place more protections for vulnerable witnesses beyond those who are under 18. We need to be more radical in our thinking and our approach to criminal evidence. I speak as somebody who practised as a criminal defence barrister for years. Aggressive and hostile cross-examination of witnesses, particularly in sexual offence cases, is a real problem, as the Minister of State is well aware, in our criminal justice system. These amendments are really designed to try to put more protections in place for vulnerable witnesses beyond those who are under 18 at the time of the trial. It is great to see protections being put in place for child witnesses, but we also need to think about the need to constrain our style of aggressive cross-examination of vulnerable witnesses beyond those who are under 18 at the time of the trial.