Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has unveiled details of a victims rights charter which he says his party would implement in government to ensure victims of crime are given greater consideration in the criminal justice system.
The charter includes a commitment to keep victims informed at all stages of the criminal justice system of what is happening their case, as well as a promise to ensure they are informed in advance of the release date for criminals. Fine Gael is also proposing changing the existing system where criminals can plead for leniency in sentencing. But the prosecution, representing the people and the victim, may not argue for tough sentences, Mr Kenny says.
"We will change the situation for serious crimes so that people will be spoken for before the court before sentence is handed down. We want the victim to be put at the centre of the justice system and put before the criminal unlike the situation we have at the moment."
Mr Kenny was speaking in Cork after meeting the founder of 19 + 1 lobby group for the victims of sexual abuse, Alice McDermott, who said she was encouraged by Mr Kenny's willingness to listen and his commitment to implement changes to help the victims of sex abuse.
Mr Kenny praised Ms McDermott for speaking about her own case where she made a complaint against a man who abused her as a child after she became concerned he may be abusing other children, only for the DPP to decide not prosecute due to lack of corroborative evidence.
Ms McDermott was let down by the criminal justice system, he said, when she sought to protect other potential victims from the man who abused her and it was a indictment of the justice system that her abuser, rather then the DPP, notified her that he was not to be prosecuted.
"It's appalling that in this day and age, our system puts criminals ahead of victims," he said after canvassing in Cork with candidates Bernard Allen, Gerry Kelly, Jerry Buttimer, Deirdre Clune and Simon Coveney. "We'll change that and put the rights of victims before criminals."
Later in Templemore in Co Tipperary, Mr Kenny emphasised Fine Gael's approach to crime by reiterating the party's pledge to recruit an extra 2,000 gardaí to bring the number of trained officers in the force to 15,000. He would have them on duty on the streets by 2012.
Mr Kenny said the Government and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell had pledged to have 14,000 gardaí by 2007 but there were currently just over 13,000 fully trained officers available. The Government had failed on its promise.
Over the past three years, serious crime rates had risen, with murder up 43 per cent, rape up 25 per cent and gun crime up 39 per cent.
Mr Kenny added that detection rates had gone down, resulting in Ireland now having the worst crime rate in Europe.