Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think the reply is good enough. I have been talking to legal colleagues who are frustrated at this. In the case to which I refer, the perpetrator was sentenced in 2012 and is now in comfortable accommodation while the victim is still waiting, not for compensation but to be put back into the position they were in prior to suffering the assault. This person suffered brain injury and it has been five years since the perpetrator was sentenced. There are a number of judicial review cases and I cited one in Cavan where the person was waiting 13 years. This has to be dealt with somehow. We say we are on the side of victims of crime but we are not, and this delay is not justified. If all the documentation has been filed the assessments should be done within six months, not six years.

I ask the Minister to look at why these delays are arising, what we need to do to deal with the huge backlog and how we can deal with them in a timely manner.