Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is great to have a woman in the Chair for the debate. I commend Senator Regina Doherty on bringing this legislation before the House and I thank her for asking Senator Pauline O'Reilly and I to work with her. It has been a privilege to work on the legislation. It is needed. It is amazing that the position has not been changed before now and this that trial process has been allowed to stand. The Minister has heard from Senator Doherty why this has needed, and that she has full support for this Bill from Noeline Blackwell from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, who we all agree is exceptionally experienced in this area and has significant credibility.

Sexual violence and rape are all too prevalent in society. The victims are predominantly women and girls. No matter how well we try to conduct it, the trial process traumatises and retraumatises victims. Many do not come forward to report sexual assault or rape because they do not want to go through the justice system. They have been put off engaging with it because of all the negative reporting over the years. There was a recent high profile case, which we could call the Belfast rape case. I will not go into its details. Needless to say, we could all agree that any victims looking at that process would have been frightened to come forward to put themselves through a similar process, regardless of what one's view was on that case. We need to work to increase the reporting of rape. We know it happens more often than is reported, as Senator Doherty said. We need to increase prosecutions so that victims can get justice.

As Senator Doherty also stated, this Bill tries to level the playing field. It is hard to comprehend that when a trial is concluded and somebody is a convicted rapist, there is a period before sentencing where people can trot into court to say how great that person is. It is remarkable. That cannot really be called evidence or testimony. It is untested and unverified. The victim has to sit and listen to it and has no opportunity to ask any questions or counter any of what is put on the record. That is grossly unfair and unbalanced. All we are doing is empowering the victim and the prosecution team to at least be able to test and validate what has been put on the record of the court. I take on board what the legal profession has said. As a barrister, I have witnessed some of these trials. I know judges use discretion and do not put huge weight on these statements. One then has to ask what it is all for, if judges do not listen to it. Judges are human beings like the rest of us. It is hard to say with absolute certainty that this has no impact on their decision afterwards. Nobody could give that assurance with complete certainty. It is important that there is an opportunity for the victim and the prosecution to test the veracity of what has been put on the court's record and not allow a complete free-for-all. As Senator Doherty said, someone can get the local bishop or GAA chairman to come in and say what a great guy he is.

We need to deal with the fact that so many women do not come forward to report these crimes. The only way to absolutely assure an increase in both reporting and the number of prosecutions is to make the courts a safer space for women. Unfortunately, we know that in a rape trial the defence will often - though not always - seek to discredit the victim by bringing her through the trial process, make her out not to be a credible witness and completely humiliate her, thereby making it really difficult for her to get justice. We have to tackle that. It is difficult, because one is balancing it with the right of the accused to have a fair trial and clear their name if they have been wrongly accused. For the most part, it is very rare for somebody to make an accusation of rape where it is not true. Nobody in their right mind would put themselves through that process without very good reason.

Much is to be taken from the fact that three of the party leaders in the Oireachtas are women. We have a female Minister for Justice. Just this week, when speaking about the legislation on stalking and strangulation, the Minister reiterated the Government's position that we have a zero-tolerance approach to sexual crimes, sexual violence and rape. If that is the case, then we need to do everything we can to increase reporting and prosecutions. Until we redress the imbalance and address the traumatising trial process that is currently in place for victims, many women will continue to stay silent, to suffer in silence and to not get the justice they deserve.

I commend the Bill to the House. I thank Senator Doherty for asking me to be part of it and to put my name to it. I commend her on the significant work that has gone into getting this Bill to where it is. I have no doubt that it will get cross-party and Independent support from across the House.