Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I am very pleased the Minister is accepting my amendment to exempt young teenagers from being placed on the sex offenders' register, which is an improvement.

Under section 2, somebody can plead a defence of mistake as to age in the defilement of a girl aged under 15. I wanted to raise the danger of somebody being able to plead such a defence if a girl is aged 16. I am concerned that somebody could adopt a defence under section 2 to get off, even though he would be guilty of an offence of defilement of a child under 17, which is covered by section 3. He should be automatically charged with an offence.

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