Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

As the Taoiseach knows, when one talks to people throughout the length and breadth of the country, from Dublin to Kerry, and asks them about this matter, they are absolutely appalled that the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the deputy leader of the Government, would suggest that soliciting a child for sex was a minor offence. How in heaven's name could anybody see that as other than a Minister being completely out of touch when what is at stake is the destruction of innocence and the permanent desecration of childhood? He called it a minor offence.

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