Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is an interesting issue and I will examine it. This gender anomaly was upheld as recently as 2012 when the Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to section 5 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 which provided that only a female child under the age of 17 years was not guilty of an offence. The Chief Justice noted previous case law which held that the Oireachtas was entitled, on public policy grounds, to protect under-age females from the risk of pregnancy as a female carried a greater burden from the act, emotionally, physically and psychologically, should she become pregnant. The issue was put before the Supreme Court and this was the view in 2012. We will re-examine both sections.