Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chair. Everybody needs to speak on this very important issue. I thank Senator Martin for his briefing and it cleared up a couple of concerns I had. There were concerns because I thought the Bill might not have gone far enough or may not have been strong enough but once the rationale was explained in terms of the "shall" and the "may" it made absolute sense because the last thing we want is to go backwards.

This legislation is designed to bring us forward. It may not be as forward as we would like but it is absolutely an incremental step in the right direction and I commend the Senator for it. I also commend Senator Martin for being able to persuade the Cabinet and Government to accept the Bill. I remember back here particularly in 2013 when I tried to bring a piece of legislation it could not even get off the ground because the Cabinet would not agree with it, so I think that is an achievement in its own right. It is the way politics should be. When something makes sense and when something is absolutely the right thing to do then it should happen. I sincerely hope we will see this Bill pass all Stages in the Seanad without delay and that it will then go through Dáil Éireann without delay because it is critical. We cannot have a situation where the perpetrator of a crime of this nature can turn around and cross-examine the victim and completely re-traumatise them. That cannot happen and this legislation is designed to make sure that would not happen. I commend it and I think everybody here will be very supportive of it.

On another issue, in this morning's Irish ExaminerCiara Phelan had an article about delays in terms of cases going through the courts system. That is very worrying because justice delayed in this type of situation is very traumatising. There should be and needs to be a separate avenue through the courts system for people who suffer domestic violence and who are brave enough to go to the Garda and to allow the case to go through the judicial system. The courts system needs to react accordingly and facilitate a quick passage for these cases. In Clare it is an eight-week delay which is two months. That is still too long. It should be eight days, not eight weeks. At least in Clare it is not as bad as it is nationally but the national average is very worrying and that is something the Minister of State, his officials and his Department can deal with very quickly. I am conscious of time so I will defer to my colleague, Senator Joe O'Reilly.