Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023: From the Seanad
Dail Éireann — 2024-07-10
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James Browne (FF), Wexford

Amendments Nos. 1 to 11, inclusive, are technical amendments which are to replace the word "vulnerable" with "relevant". The reason for that is that the word "vulnerable" has a more particular meaning in a number of other places in legislation. This is to avoid confusion in relation to it. A vulnerable person is currently defined in the Bill as a person with capacity issues. However, a position of vulnerability is also used in relation to trafficked persons, which is construed more broadly. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions raised concerns that these terms could be conflated, which risked narrowing the interpretation of position of vulnerability. To address the issue, the amendments define a person with capacity issues as a relevant person and provide for the associated changes in terminology in relation to that. The purpose of the change is to avoid confusion.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-07-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:11+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-07-10