Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Decent people, young and old, throughout the State are outraged that a male of more than 40 years who grotesquely abused a child of 12 years should walk free from jail. Anybody guilty of abusing a child should be in jail for a very long time. However, in hammering down that these abusers of children should go to jail for a very long time, as is correct, the Government should not include in the same Bill a completely different provision on an entirely different issue which would, for example, make criminals of teenagers who have intimate sexual relations with each other by consent. It beggars belief that it has reintroduced a provision inserted in a Bill 70 years ago which will result in youth being criminalised across the board. It should not have rolled in with a law aimed at ensuring that abusers are sent to jail and kept there, a provision which criminalises youth engaged in the normal intimacy that takes place among older teenagers.

I have tabled a number of amendments which would not criminalise consensual relations between, for example, 16 year olds. The Government should accept these and similar amendments. If it does not do so, I will vote against the Bill even if I must stand on my own.

It is a disgrace that the Government would treat young people in this way. The 15, 16 and 17 year olds of this country are capable of thinking for themselves and engaging in wide-ranging debate. Instead of rushing in here to opportunistically cover over its recent incompetence, the Government should bring these young people and their parents into the debate and listen to their voices. While I agree that abusers of children should be sent to jail for a long time, it is a disgrace that young people involved in consensual relations should be placed in the same category.

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