Vol. 413 No. 5
8 Mr. S. Barrett asked the Minister for Justice if he intends amending our criminal legislation to allow the courts, instead of or in addition to dealing with a convicted person in any other way, make an order requiring him to pay compensation to the victim of crime; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I am sympathetic in principle to the idea that we should have a general provision in the law which would enable a court, in certain circumstances, to order that the convicted person pay monetary compensation to the victim.
As the Deputy will be aware, a start has already been made because we have included in the Criminal Damage Bill, which is already before the House, a provision to enable compensation for damage to property to be awarded against the defendant.
I have the wider question of compensation in criminal cases generally under consideration for possible action when the many other proposals contained in the Government's recently announced programme have been disposed of.
