Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I sought to transpose section 14 of the UK Act to an Irish context to fit into last year's Sexual Offences Act because that establishes the separate offence of grooming. If we are depending on section 15 of the UK Act alone, there is no parallel grooming offence, inadequate as the Minister deems it to be in the UK legislation. We do not have such an offence and will not have it following the enactment of this legislation. It seems to be a lacuna and yet another issue we will have to return to with the comprehensive package on which the Minister has drafted heads of a Bill. There are many more holes to deal with in future.

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