Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

First, in case there is any misunderstanding, the reason I am here this morning is because of the importance of the issue. As the Deputy is aware, it is tradition when a Head of State visits the country for the Taoiseach to meet that Head of State and I was due to do it in his absence. That is the reason for the change in who took the Order of Business.

Second, regarding the Law Reform Commission report, the Law Reform Commission drew attention to the fact that we had very conservative legislation on this area. It did not say it was unconstitutional and notwithstanding what the Deputy said, it was never proposed by any Deputy on the floor of this House that we introduce the defence of reasonable mistake. I suspect, and I am being honest about this, that if any Deputy had done so he or she would have been accused of writing a paedophile charter. That is what would have happened. They would have been accused of watering down the strong legislation and I do not believe any Deputy would have done it. That is why it never happened.

Furthermore, it is wrong to say or imply that the Supreme Court has over-ruled all our legislation in this area. We have strong legislation regarding rape and sexual assault, and that still stands.

The Opposition will be consulted later this week. It will not be a question of the Bill being produced on Tuesday and a debate on Wednesday. As the Deputy has acknowledged, this is a very complex area and already this morning a legal expert has cautioned us to be careful about this legislation. We do not want, for the sake of rushing legislation on one day rather than another, to get it wrong and have another mistake created in a few weeks from now. If it takes a couple of extra days in which to get it right, I believe genuinely that is what the public wants to see us do and that is what we will do.

Regarding the Director of Public Prosecutions, the carriage of this case was jointly between the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

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