Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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3. To ask the Taoiseach if in cases of political corruption, members of the public have the right to request a review of a decision by the Director of Public Prosecution in the same manner as is available to a victim of a crime in a standard criminal investigation. [3136/25]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach the number of reviews of decisions to not prosecute requested from victims; the number of times this resulted in a decision that should be reversed and where there should be a prosecution. [3137/25]

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 4 together.

As the Deputy will be aware, Section 2 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1974 explicitly provides that the Director of Public Prosecution shall be independent in the performance of her functions. One of the ways effect is given to this independence is that funding for the Director’s Office is provided through a separate Vote; Vote 5 – Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. While I have a role in presenting Estimates for the DPP’s Vote to the Oireachtas annually, neither I nor my officials exercise any control in relation to how the Director discharges her functions.

I am advised by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that members of the public do not have the right to request a review of a decision by the DPP in the same manner that victims of crime can.

The Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017 establishes the rights of victims of crime to certain information and to certain protections during investigations and criminal proceedings. These include the right of victims to request reasons for decisions not to prosecute and subsequent reviews of those decisions.

The Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act defines a ‘victim’ as:

(a)a natural person who has suffered harm, including physical, mental or emotional harm or economic loss which was directly caused by a criminal offence

(b)family members of a person whose death was directly caused by a criminal offence and who have suffered harm as a result of that person’s death.

The Office of the DPP website also sets out who can ask the DPP for reasons for decisions not to prosecute, or reviews of those decisions as follows:

You can ask the DPP for reasons for a decision not to prosecute or for a review of that decision if you are:

•a victim of crime;

•a family member of a victim in a fatal case;

•a solicitor acting on behalf of either of the above.

More information on this matter can be found in Chapter 12 of the Guidelines for Prosecutors, published by the Office of the DPP.

Statistics on the number of requests for reviews of decisions not to prosecute requested by victims and the number of times that this has resulted in a reversal of the original decision are regularly published in the Office of the DPP’s Annual Reports.

For ease of reference, below is an extract from the 2023 Annual Report: