Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 21 is my own so I can outline that.

I propose to delete section 7 of the Bill. This deletion will remove the provisions on the knowledge of consent and rape which have been the subject of discussion, as we mentioned very briefly. The provisions in question stem from recommendations of the Law Reform Commission in relation to rape and moving to an objective test of knowledge of belief in consent to amend the offence to nonconsensual intercourse where the man does not reasonably believe at the time of intercourse that the woman consents. This gives effect to the policy intention that a man who has nonconsensual intercourse ought to be acquitted if his belief that the woman was consenting was objectively reasonable. However, the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, has highlighted serious issues with defining the mental state in relation to rape in isolation. Essentially, the DPP has said that the fact that we would change what is a subjective test to objective for rape but not apply it to sexual assault, would create problems. While this initially seemed a straightforward process, it is a more lengthy process that requires much further engagement. With regret, I am proposing to take this section out in its entirety to make sure that we can bring forward proposals that deal with this in terms of rape but also sexual assault. My intention is to bring that forward as quickly as possible. As I said, it is not as straightforward as we had initially hoped. It is my intention to develop policy proposals around codifying sexual assault in order to inform a separate sexual offences Bill, which would also include provisions on the knowledge of consent in this regard. This proposed deletion is a technical change.