Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to the Chamber. She has taken time out of her busy schedule to be here, because of the importance of this Bill for the victims of sexual assault. The Minister of State commented on how, as we all know, the perpetrator’s previous history is not allowed to be given to the court. Yet, the victim's previous history is given to the court. That tells you a lot about our system. Previously, many times, the prosecution would have asked, “What were you wearing?” and posed those types of questions. You would have to wonder how fair our legal system is. Clearly, the low conviction rates, as well as the fact that so many victims are not willing to come forward, tells us a lot about how the system is not working. If it was working, we would have more prosecutions, but we do not. Senator Clonan made the point about how our Defence Forces cannot even defend our female members of the Defence Forces. This shows that our system is not working.

I thank the Minister for being here, and I thank the Members who tabled this important Bill, which contains what is required to fix a system that is clearly not working. I call on the proposer, Senator Doherty, to reply.