Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for a detailed and comprehensive opening statement. I commend him, his Department officials and the Minister on the work they are doing in this area. It is a comprehensive Bill, as the Minister of State outlined, and I do not believe there is any point in me rehashing and rereading everything he has just said.

There are certain things I would like to stress as part of my contribution today. Fianna Fáil welcomes and supports the Bill . As a Fianna Fáil Minister of State, Deputy Browne is leading this through both Houses. It has already gone through the Lower House and is now going through this House. I hope the passage of the Bill will take place very swiftly because it is important it is passed.

The Bill is broad in its remit. It does not just update our sexual offences legislation and enhance protections for vulnerable victims. There are many aims in the Bill, including the implementation of the recommendations of the O'Malley review of the protections for vulnerable witnesses and the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences, to put the proposed new national referral mechanism for victims of human trafficking on a statutory footing, and to clear the final obstacles to ratification of the second optional protocol on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The Bill will also amend the Defence Act 1954 to ensure persons subject to military law who commit specified sexual offences in this jurisdiction will be dealt with by An Garda Síochána and the civilian courts rather than through a military process. Finally, the Bill provides that character evidence introduced at a sentencing hearing for a person convicted of an offence listed on the Schedule to the Sex Offenders Act 2001 must be made on oath or via affidavit. As Minister of that State outlined, those who provide such evidence will be subject to cross-examination. The progress of the Bill is timely, given the recent introduction of an EU directive updating the original EU anti-trafficking directive, which guides the best practice approach towards cases of human trafficking and protecting the victims of trafficking.

As I have outlined, Part 1 deals with the Title of the Bill. Part 2 refers to sexual offences and contains several very important measures. Part 3 deals with human trafficking. Part 4 deals with the Defence Act. Part 5 deals with children, child prostitution and child pornography. In his summary, the Minister of State said the measures the Bill sets out are important reforms to our legislation and are designed to aid and assist vulnerable victims, including accessing support, reducing trauma, strengthening protections during a trial or, more broadly, ensuring the criminal justice system is optimised and accessible for all.

The Bill is an important step forward in ensuring a victim-centred justice system. We all know of people have been through the process and how difficult and traumatic it is for them to have suffered and then have to go through a legal process. We must do anything and everything we can to let society and the public know this is not behaviour that can ever be tolerated. We must ensure everything we do is victim-centred and look after victims as best we can, given they have suffered such terrible trauma. I commend the Minister of State on all he has done on this Bill. I also commend his officials, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Martin, in terms of his impact on the Defence Forces issue. I commend the Bill to the House.