Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will make the points. I said that the Supreme Court has struck down section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1935 and seven prisoners are currently imprisoned in consequences of a conviction under that section. Those cases cannot be dealt with in a new Bill. The C.C. case was brought by a prisoner who was not convicted of an offence. The case concerned a person who was charged with the offence but had not been tried. The Supreme Court decision in the C.C. case did not decide, therefore, the legal status and position of convicted prisoners. That is the point. In our view there is a difference in these cases.

Deputy Rabbitte contends that the Attorney General would not defend a case if it was not consented to by the line Department. That is not how the system works. In this case it was the Director of Public Prosecutions, on behalf of the Attorney General, who fought the constitutional issue in the case. That is a fundamental misunderstanding by Deputy Rabbitte on the key issue.

Deputy Rabbitte wants to put the case that every law is struck down and that I am trying to confuse the position. I am making the point, which he knows well, that matters of sexual assaults, aggravated sexual assaults, rape and rape contrary to section 4 are covered in Acts passed by this House which are still law. A person dealing with any of our children under any of these Acts is subject to the full rigours of the law and to try to give an impression that that is not the case is wrong, and Deputy Rabbitte knows that.

I will say nothing about the Labour Party lawyers or experts. I am sure they are all top class, but we have to make sure that the laws dealing with this issue, which I have said on two occasions was on two points, are not discriminatory on grounds of gender. We have to ensure that the law has defences required by the Supreme Court in terms of its decision to sustain their constitutional validity. We have to get that right. I have already said, although Deputy Rabbitte obviously did not hear me——

See this speech in context