Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I support the general principle that this is a difficult way to make law. When the Labour Party pointed out the loophole last week the Minister acknowledged fairly speedily that it needed to be addressed and we want to facilitate it. The Minister has chosen yet again to go further than simply plugging a loophole. I do not wish to sound smart but lifting a portion of the Fine Gael Bill and grafting it onto this, while the right thing to do given we want to enact the legislation, has a smart alec quality. If the Minister wanted to do that he should have addressed other issues. The Minister is plugging a loophole with emergency legislation which the Opposition has had very little time to scrutinise, as we only received it today. I have, to the best of my ability and with the benefit of little advice, tried to examine the Bill forensically and in its historical context to come up with amendments worthy of teasing out the issues in the House. I will be interested to hear the Minister's answer.

This is neither emergency legislation to plug a gap nor a comprehensive response to real deficiencies in our child protection law. It is a hybrid of both, in plugging the gap but also going somewhat further. The Minister cannot have it both ways. Either it represents an emergency measure on which we are all agreed to plug an acknowledged gap in legislation, or it seeks to achieve other objectives. In the latter scenario we on this side of the House, with much less legal support than the Government, need more time to consider the proposed measures to ensure we do our constitutional job to address genuine fears and concerns.

There is an all-party consensus on the issue, which is reflected among members of the all-party Joint Committee on Child Protection, whose Chairman, Deputy Peter Power, has now left the House. Many people have worked very hard on that committee, not least the Chairman. One of its recommendations was a consolidation of the law in this area so we are not constantly plugging gaps and inadequacies in the law. I have no doubt we will return to the issue as technology advances, because legislators everywhere are one step behind the potential of evil people to do harm using technology. We try to keep up to provide general protection.

I will make a final comment on the sexualising of children, about which we all have concerns. Television, radio and newspapers participate in almost vulgarising public life and discourse in this regard. We cannot turn the tide in that respect but the issue needs to addressed and our responsibility is to provide robust laws.

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