Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Apart from the utter incompetence, probably acknowledged everywhere, of the Government in not being prepared for the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment, the matter outraging decent people around the country is the sight of adult men who abused a child walking free or about to walk free from prison. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, in the Seanad yesterday, outlined a range of other legislation which still stands and is not unconstitutional. Is the Tánaiste giving an undertaking that those adult men, if released under the Supreme Court judgment, will be charged under the existing and valid legislation?

There is a major problem in coming in here in 2006 with a simple repeat of legislation passed in 1935, especially as it affects 16 year old youth in Ireland today. An urgent discussion is needed, not least with the youth and with their parents, particularly for that age range. The Crisis Pregnancy Agency in a survey in Donegal found that, of 153 girls surveyed, approximately 50% had intimate relations before the age of 17.

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