Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Naughten. It is a very good thing that we have had this discussion and I very much appreciate the work he has done in this area. When we talk about child sexual abuse, the focus is very often on the stranger who poses a threat to a child but much of the research done and much of the experience in this area show that children more often than not know their abuser. Often the abuser is within a family, is very close to home or is a close family friend. We must bring our legal architecture up to date and meet our international obligations. As I said, I very much look forward to publishing the measure on which we have worked.

There has been a slight delay in publishing the scheme. I envisaged it would be published at the end of January but it should be published at the end of March or early April. The work is ongoing with the Office of the Attorney General. When it is published, there will be various detailed explanations of each of the heads of the scheme. There will be a full visibility as to the direction in which we are going in advance of the Bill, in its final form, being published. However, it will only be in its final form in the context of commencing the debate in this House. I am sure that as it weaves its way through this House and the other one, various amendments, changes and improvements will be made to it based on the insights of Deputies and on the very valuable work done by organisations outside this House, many of which made very substantial and important submissions to the two Oireachtas committees which reported on this area. Not only did they make written submissions but some of them appeared before those committees.

I thank Deputies for their contributions. I am sorry if I disappointed Deputy Finian McGrath who seemed to think we would vote this down. I did not want to spoil his narrative but I take the view that we should encourage Members of this House to publish Private Members' Bills in areas where Government is not doing the work. I am in favour of Bills ultimately being enacted and of contributing to their amendment. In the context of Deputy Naughten's Bill, a huge amount of work has been done in this area and I think he will be very pleased with the Bill we ultimately publish. I am not saying I will be immune from criticism on some bits of it but they are issues on which he and I soldiered together to try to bring about reform.

As I said, it has taken a bit longer to get the Bill published but that is because we are seeking to incorporate within it all of our international obligations in regard to the various instruments mentioned. It would have been quite simple to produce a Bill that did not deal with those issues which will make it a very complex, detailed and comprehensive legislation. It is better to do this comprehensively than have another item of f piecemeal legislation in which we partly address issues and leave a whole range of other matters aside for a future date. I am really anxious that by the time this Government has completed its terms of office, we are in a position to fully comply with and sign up to any international obligations we have in this area, or ones to which we should be happy to sign up, and have reflected them in our domestic legislation.

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