Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Reservations have been expressed that a female child under 17 years of age will not be prosecuted in respect of sexual intercourse. Deputy Cuffe raised this issue directly in the course of the debate. The Ombudsman queried that decision and queried whether reasonable grounds or justification exist for the differentiation. She did not suggest we should not do it. I want to put that on the record of the House because Deputy Cuffe suggested otherwise. I appreciate, given the short time Members have to prepare to deal with this legislation, how a simple mistake like that can be made.

There are reasonable grounds and justification for the differentiation. There is the practical argument which the Director of Public Prosecutions communicated to the Government, namely, that were a female in that position criminalised, she would become an accomplice to the crime and would then, in the case of a prosecution of a person, raise the evidential threshold to a substantial degree. That is a practical consideration justifying the differentiation.

There is also the issue already referred to by the Minister of the stigmatisation of a mother who is proceeding to term and delivering a child. That mother, as she goes through pregnancy and delivers a child, is clearly cast in the role of being a public criminal by the legislation. I certainly would not——

See this speech in context