Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 July 2023
54. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Justice further to Parliamentary Question No. 45 of 18 April 2023, the status of the independent review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, which was due for completion by the end of 2022; the reason for the delay; if she has received the final report to date; the expected timeline for the publication of the final report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33965/23]
View answerMy question is very specific. It is to ask the Minister the status of the independent review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, which was due for completion. The latest answer was that it would be complete the end of last year but really it was due for completion in 2020, three years after the law became operational. There was the three-month period. It is now three years later and there is no sign of it. Where is the report? Does the Minister have it? When will it be published and could she explain the reason for the delay?
I thank the Deputy. I know this is something she has been interested in for some time and I know I have responded to her on this previously. Section 27 of the Act provides for the review to which her question refers. We commissioned an independent consultant to undertake the statutory review but there have been a number of reasons, more particularly her work to complete the familicide study, which meant it was not possible to conclude this in the timeframe. A particular individual was commissioned to focus on this piece of work. We had a very unfortunate situation where the person commissioned to do the familicide study passed away. On engaging this individual for this particular study, we asked her to take it on and that piece of work took much longer. I was reluctant to take her off the particular work she was doing or to take away this particular review because we anticipated the familicide work would be done much more quickly.
Where we are now essentially is, following discussions with this individual we have mutually agreed that it is not possible for her to complete this particular study. She has been very helpful however in making available to my Department the documentation and the research that has been done. So that is not to say there is absolutely nothing done at this stage. My Department will advertise shortly to commission a new person to complete the review. The reason that is happening now is because it is only in the last few weeks that we received the body of work that has been done to date. Without setting out the terms of reference we wanted to know whether it was a commission for a piece of work that would include research interviews, the background work, or just the writing up of a report. It is just the writing up of a report. A huge body of work has been done. That will be advertised shortly and I can absolutely assure the Deputy that once the review is completed and the report received, any recommendations made will be brought to this House.
It really was a case that we had an unfortunate situation where somebody passed away; the person who was supposed to conduct this particular review took on the familicide report that took much longer than intended; I did not want to take her off this particular commissioned report but, unfortunately, the delay has resulted in us going way beyond what had been committed to in the legislation. It is an absolute priority to get this up and running as soon as possible but what is positive is the bones of the research work has been done. It is now a matter of just writing up the report.
I thank the Minister. It is good and bad news. At least there is some clarity. However, it is six years since the legislation became operational. It is three years and three months since the Minister was legally obliged to carry out a review. I really do not know what happened. I understand that the person died and there were difficulties. What I do not understand is the person that we are talking about was confirmed as the study lead for the familicide and domestic homicide review in June 2020, after the woman died. She was a very respected woman and I do not even want to mention names here. However, the Minister then appointed the same person to review Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 after that. It just does not make sense to me. I might be wrong in my reading of it. I took a lot of time with this legislation. I actually voted against it, with just two other colleagues in the Dáil, after considering it because I felt it was endangering women. The review is extremely important in looking at convictions and prosecutions we need that to see if the legislation is effective.
I thank the Deputy and agree the review is extremely important. The person in question was commissioned to do this review first. Subsequently, the other person in question passed away and this person was asked to complete that. It took much longer than anybody thought it would. Without saying names or getting into details it took much longer to do the familicide study. Anybody who has looked at the report will see the magnitude of work involved in that. Yes, a decision could have been taken to make that change but it was my understanding at multiple points that we would actually be finished the familicide review much earlier. What is positive is that a huge body of work has been done. It is a matter now for a new person to put the report together. A lot of work has happened and I myself have engaged with members of An Garda Síochána who are solely working in this area.
It is to understand where the law is working and where it is not. The review itself will consider whether further changes need to be made. I am aware that the issue of brothel-keeping comes up. Internationally, it has been shown that the legalisation of activities does not necessarily result in the protection of the most vulnerable. The Deputy will agree that the sole objective of the legislation is to protect the women at the heart of this matter, who are extremely vulnerable and who in most instances are doing what they do against their will or are trafficked and do not have a say in what is happening to them.
I could be wrong but my research and notes and the research of my office state the independent reviewer was appointed in July 2020. That was a month after she had been appointed for the domestic homicide review. She was given both tasks, with one month between them. I would really like clarification on this.
The legislation was brought in to criminalise the purchase of sex and increase the penalties with the sole purpose of protecting women, but we have absolutely no data from the Government on whether this has happened. However, we do have very important research from Queen’s University Belfast, Amnesty International and the University of Limerick stating women are in greater danger than before. Amnesty International’s report of 2022 entitled We Live Within a Violent System shows the 2017 legislation has placed sex workers at a higher risk of abuse, and it goes on in this regard. This is the information available to me but I have nothing from the Government.
The legislation, as the Deputy has said, has made significant changes. It was introduced to provide additional protection for people involved in prostitution. What we have seen in other jurisdictions is that the decriminalisation of brothel-keeping, which the Deputy and others have raised, actually creates a greater loophole that allows the likes of criminal gangs and others to profit but also to continue the abuse, particularly of women.
I fully agree with the Deputy that it is vital to finish the report as quickly as possible and get all the information. There has been considerable engagement with the Garda and those responsible for implementing the law as it stands. There are already ways in which we can improve and perhaps change the law to allow the authorities to do their job better and ensure those who procure women for sex are the ones prosecuted. They are the ones responsible for bedding up the brothels and many of them work internationally, not just at local level.
If I may, I will now use a few seconds of the 30 seconds I will have to introduce the next question, which is on the same theme – violence against women. I do not accept what the Minister is saying. She has given her opinion and I accept her bona fides but I have asked for a report. We need a report outlining the convictions and so on.
