Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I approach this Bill with doubts about whether rushed legislation is safe. The full horror of the heinous practice of sexual predators grooming young people over the Internet has emerged into the public consciousness over recent weeks. The phenomenon of Internet grooming, whereby paedophiles use the Internet to cultivate relationships with children with the aim of making contact with and abusing them, must be made illegal. We need to enact clear, coherent and effective laws which adequately respond to the issues of sexual abuse and, in particular, paedophilic use of the Internet. Legislation that makes Internet grooming a criminal offence, and nails the offender in the specific act of grooming prior to an off-line meeting taking place, is long overdue.

For several years, paedophiles have been using the Internet to contact children. They often pose as teenagers and initially make contact in chatrooms. They engage in e-mail correspondence with young people before attempting to arrange meetings. The problem of grooming has continued to escalate, even though children are being told each day about the risks they face on-line. I do not think education alone will stop children from trusting strangers they meet on-line. No amount of parental control or filtering software will stop children from giving their mobile telephone numbers, or home addresses, to people who have carefully groomed them over a long period. The legislation before the House is vital if we are to deter predators from engaging in activity of this nature — if we are to catch them in their tracks on-line before they commit sexual offences. I hope that evidence of abusive conversations or on-line solicitations will be sufficient to warrant convictions.

This problem is too serious to be the subject of political point-scoring or to make cheap political capital from it. I am delighted that this Bill will not be opposed. I am happy to note the Minister's intention of incorporating in this legislation the spirit of the Labour Party's Bill and the substance of Fine Gael's Bill. He was accused this morning of cogging, but he is cogging for right, admirable and useful reasons.

The issue of the protection of children has long been approached in a half-hearted manner. The Garda central vetting unit is able to check the backgrounds of people who work in the health service, but it lacks the capacity to perform similar checks on people who work with children in the voluntary sector. Voluntary organisations have to rely solely on Garda checks of criminal records. Such checks fail to take cognisance of the fact that just one in ten abusers has a criminal record. The differences between the child protection systems on either side of the Border create loopholes which can be exploited by child sexual abusers. In some cases, prospective abusers can work as ancillary workers in the same buildings as children. They will not have been the subject of Garda checks because they are not deemed to be working with children. I know of cases of this happening in schools. We need to make progress in that regard.

The anomalies and inconsistencies in the vetting procedures of both jurisdictions could be ironed out by the creation of a centralised system, such as a vetting clearing house. I have called previously for the establishment of such a facility, which would impose more rigorous standards in the background checks undertaken on prospective employees. The protection of our young people should be the over-riding priority. While many young people have mastered the use of technology, they remain vulnerable to insidious seduction by abusers.

See this speech in context