Results 2,781-2,800 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Is the Minister tabling these changes as amendments?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 2: In page 5, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following subsection: "(3) The Schedule to the Act of 2006 is amended, in the row relating to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993, in the third column of that row, by the deletion of "Sections 3 and 4" and the substitution therefor of "Section 3".". This is an important amendment and the Minister referred to...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Was the offence deliberately abolished last year?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: That is fine.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I welcome the Minister's frank explanation, which is a significant advance on last year. We are trying to grapple with difficult issues and nobody is gainsaying that. The Minister is correct that we are making law that has general application. However, I did not have the case of an 18 year old gay man who has a 16 year old boyfriend in mind. I have in mind a 16 year old boy being...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: It should not be encouraged either. Should it?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Should it be a crime for the 36 year old?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I do not know how it sounds to the Minister but the notion of a 36 year old man engaging in the type of activity he described with a 16 year old girl is not acceptable either.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Should we consider including that protection for boys and girls up to the age of 17?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: The bottom line is whether the Minister is happy to leave both boys and girls aged 15 in that situation. That is what doing nothing achieves. Is that where we will leave it?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I have earned my parchment.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: That is an unfair point.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I am very strongly of the view that this matter has created a lacuna in the law. I am impressed by the Minister's explanation. There is a requirement that the law should be as gender neutral as possible. The Minister made the exception last year in regard to pregnant girls. We cannot always follow that general principle. We will have to return to this issue. In the meantime, I will not...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 3: In page 5, paragraph (a), between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: "(1A) (a) A person commits an offence ifâ (i) he or she intentionally arranges or facilitates something that he intends to do, intends another person to do, or believes that another person will do, in any part of the world, and (ii) doing it will involve the commission of an offence under the...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: One could have e-mails.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I take much of what the Minister stated on this area. All the talk about Deputy Jim O'Keeffe's Bill and the Minister's acceptance of it has been on outlawing the crime of grooming. In fact, the section does not do this â it outlaws grooming and travelling. However, grooming a child for sex is not an offence and will not be after enacting this Bill unless it is followed up by someone...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I do not know if the Minister wishes to comment. He has indicated that he has published the heads of the Bill.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 4: In page 5, lines 38 to 40, to delete all words from and including ", having" in line 38 down to and including "occasions" in line 40. It is not clear why it is necessary to have prior communication on two occasions. Did the Minister pick that number for a reason or would one occasion be sufficient? Is it there because a mistake could be made by an individual who...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Why would that be?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I can see how that would be very helpful to the prosecution in getting a conviction. If somebody made contact with a child abroad and explicitly sought to plan a rendezvous for a sexual encounter, before travelling and having the encounter abroad, no offence would be committed unless it was done more than once.