Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As I have said a number of times, the committee issued three reports in this regard. The first of these recommended that the Government establish a statutory scheme for Garda vetting to regulate the collation, exchange and employment of hard and soft information for the purpose of child protection and to require that all persons working with children be subject to vetting. In conjunction with the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, the Minister of State with responsibility for children is working on the preparation of legislation to establish a national vetting bureau.

The second report dealt with absolute or strict liability in respect of sexual offences against or in connection with children. It contained 39 recommendations in total, some of which were restatements of recommendations in the 2006 report of the Joint Committee on Child Protection in respect of criminal justice procedures. Again, the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, on behalf of the Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs, obtained Government approval in December 2009 to prepare the general scheme of a Bill to implement the recommendations of the joint committee, including the majority recommendations in cases in which there was no unanimity. That Bill will deal with the issues of absolute and strict liability that arose in the context of the Supreme Court judgment in the CC case.

The third report, which was published in February, dealt with the rights of children under the Constitution and the statute and case law concerning adoption, guardianship, care proceedings, custody and access to children, and included an alternative wording for a constitutional amendment. The report is currently being considered at senior official level in relevant Departments prior to its consideration by Ministers; the Attorney General is also considering the legal and constitutional issues that arise. The work is ongoing and after consideration by the Government, decisions can be taken.

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