Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I am not blaming anybody. Even after the Supreme Court case, the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, is not in favour of what we have to do constitutionally. If we were doing it in the absence of having to do it constitutionally, I do not believe we would have proceeded against that kind of strong advice, because people would have said we were weakening the law. We now have no alternative. There is no doubt there were people aware of what the Law Reform Commission said, and were aware the section was probably too harsh and conservative to some, but others would have taken the view that to weaken that provision would weaken the protection of our children.

The Attorney General has behaved impeccably in this matter. There is no question of him having any responsibility in this matter. There was joint carriage of the case, and joint counsel. I said yesterday that the Office of the Chief State Solicitor informed the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in November 2002 that this case was emerging; that it was being initiated. Subsequently, in December 2002, I think, there was contact from the Office of the Chief State Solicitor saying we would be kept up to date, and I understand nothing happened subsequent to that. Being aware of a case and having a Bill in the drawer to deal with it just does not happen. To start, one would need to see the terms on which the Supreme Court might decide that something was unconstitutional. There was no anticipation it would come to its decision.

I hope the people involved will not walk free. The Supreme Court case will be fought tomorrow. Ultimately, the decision of Ms Justice Laffoy will be determined by that court, either tomorrow or subsequently. As I have said on a number of occasions, there is also available to the Director of Public Prosecutions the possibility of re-arresting these people on other charges. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is completely independent, as Deputy Rabbitte knows, and I am sure the DPP has a strategy to deal with these matters.

With regard to counselling, I have said the Health Service Executive is available to counsel the victims and their families. Obviously the HSE has not got the details of these individuals but I have asked that the Irish Prison Service, the Office of the DPP or the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, or a combination of all three, could make available the names of the people involved, and I will ensure they are put in contact with the counselling service.

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