Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for making a statement on this matter. It is important that a statement was made in this House because a request for a full statement on this matter came from this House yesterday.

It is important to state that the questions posed by Senator Cummins need to be answered quickly. There were posed in the other House this morning by the leader of my party. The gravity of this situation requires an immediate audit and an immediate response to those questions, specifically the question on section 1(2) of the 1935 Act, over which I understand a cloud of suspicion exists following the Supreme Court judgment of last week. It is important to know how many persons convicted under that subsection are also currently languishing in Irish jails. If that is successful, we would need to know the total number involved.

What is important now is to move ahead and get agreement on plugging the existing gap in Irish law and leaving to one side the issue of the age of consent, which is a wider issue that warrants wider debate and an issue which we need to take time to consider. I give that view sincerely.

It is important to put in place, as Senator Cummins said, some practical help for the victims and their families. Despite the comments of the Minister that no charges have been preferred post 12 May under section 1(1) of the 1935 legislation, we have heard of cases in the country where the Garda have informed the victims of statutory rape that the book of evidence and the court case proceeding will not now proceed. I suggest to the Minister and the Government that specific help needs to be provided to those families and those young girls, and in each case the State must be there for them at this stage, given the gravity of the situation we now face. That needs to happen urgently. We also need to be informed as soon as possible of the total number of cases in respect of which charges will not now come before the courts, given the significance of last week's ruling.

The Minister claimed that the normal channels of communication were not used in this case between the DPP, his office and Attorney General's office. Most people find that unbelievable. As to the notion that such a significant court case could come before the Supreme Court and the Minister would not be aware of that fact, I respectfully suggest that a county solicitor, not least an eminent senior counsel such as the Minister, knowing the ramifications of that case, would be aware of that.

The Minister came to this House tonight in a very defensive mode, and rightly so because currently he has much to defend. Our task is to do whatever we can to resolve this legal lacuna and to ensure that the protection of our young is the absolute priority. To do that, the way forward is to bring forward amending legislation and to leave the issue of the age of consent to another day. I hope the Government does that. I am not clear from what the Minister said as to whether the Dáil will sit tomorrow to deal with this matter or whether it will be dealt with early next week. We need clarity on that issue as well.