Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The Law Reform Commission said it was too harsh that one cannot have a defence in such cases. That is a different issue. I genuinely believe if Members had stood up and seen the response of the Ombudsman for Children and other groups, they would have thought again and decided not to go down such a road and weaken the law. Every Member is working hard to close off the loophole that has emerged. Hopefully, we can do that over the next 24 hours. We need to spend the rest of the day doing that. I repeat the commitment I made. As soon as the Government has agreed the provisions for the legislation later this morning, I will have the Minister make it available to the Opposition parties.

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