Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister. He set a very discordant note in the Lower House this morning, having spent the first 15 minutes or so perfecting himself and justifying his inaction rather than dealing with the Bill. I am glad that a more conciliatory tone has been adopted in this House and I hope the debate will be constructive.

Fine Gael supports the Bill but has some reservations about it. My party has acted constructively at all times in this process. We drafted the Bill to plug the loophole last week and did not introduce it because the Government made a commitment to introduce legislation quickly, notwithstanding the Minister's lack of urgency in the matter. Did the Minister leak the Fine Gael Bill to the press? If so, what was his intention and why was it misrepresented?

The Bill broadly reflects the proposals in the Fine Gael Bill. We are pleased that the Minister has abandoned his proposal to lower the age of consent and that he has agreed to follow, for the most part, the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission. In replying, he may outline his view on the age of consent.

There has been a range of statements on this matter by the Government, most of which only indicate the disarray that has prevailed in Government Buildings in recent times. The Minister has done everything in his power to divert attention away from this most important national issue and he is guilty of playing politics with it. The Tánaiste is also guilty of trying to muddy the waters. She informed the Lower House that the Ombudsman for Children has taken a strong view against dealing with this matter. This was such a misrepresentation of what the ombudsman actually said that she was obliged to issue a statement to show that it was clearly not the case.

The Government has tried every trick in the book to blame everyone else but has ultimately failed to prepare for this kind of contingency and has even failed to see the problem arising, despite clear warnings and signals. It failed to implement the recommendations of an important State advisory agency on law reform, it failed to put in place basic safeguards in the Office of the Attorney General — as recommended in the wake of similar crises — it failed to implement the proposals in the strategy outlined in the statement of the Department of Justice and it informed us there was no problem. The Government Members have played politics with an important issue and misrepresented the facts to the Oireachtas in a bid to save their own skins. Ultimately, the Government has failed to deal effectively with the problem.

The Minister claimed this morning that there was no way the Government should have known that the law was problematic. Any suggestion to that effect is a black lie. The Law Reform Commission issued a report in 1990, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform issued a discussion paper in 1998 that asked substantial questions on this issue and warnings were issued in 2002. Most importantly, the Supreme Court warned a year ago that issues of constitutionality needed to be examined, as stated in an article in The Irish Times on 13 July last year. An article on the matter also appeared in the Law Society Gazette last October. The Minister said this morning that the Supreme Court judgment of last week left him shaken. He was shaken, perhaps, but until Deputy Kenny raised the issue on Tuesday, he was not stirred into action.

There is no excuse for the Government not knowing about this issue. The Attorney General was a party to the Supreme Court case, despite the fact that the Minister told us that the Director of Public Prosecutions had responsibility. Eventually, the Attorney General admitted there had been a breakdown of communications in his office. The latter was a serious understatement.

In 1994, a failing in the Office of the Attorney General brought down a Government. New procedures were to be put in place at that stage whereby the Attorney General was to be informed about every case and a risk assessment system was to be put in place. This has failed. Who is taking responsibility for it? Is there any accountability left in the Government?

The Bill produced today even fails to live up to the two criteria set down this week by the Taoiseach, who said that any legislation must, at a minimum, provide for the defence of a mistake and also be gender neutral. This Bill is not gender neutral and introduces a number of worrying anomalies. Where two teenagers have sexual intercourse, the male would be committing an offence but the female would not. This introduces the same gender inequality that existed in the 1935 Act. Fine Gael, as the Minister pointed out, has serious doubts about the constitutionality of the Bill, which contradicts certain existing statutes, not least of which are the equality Acts.

The Minister said that there is a frenzied atmosphere in the country. That atmosphere is fuelled by the genuine fears and concerns of parents who are justifiably angry that the system, be it the Oireachtas or the courts, has failed them and their children. It is their anger that has finally jolted the Government into action. This shows how out of touch the Government has been with the people it is supposed to serve.

We will support the Bill, with certain reservations. We have tabled a number of amendments to it and many of my colleagues wish to speak thereon on Committee Stage. Just like the Government, we are anxious to expedite the Bill and we hope it will take on board our concerns.

The Minister referred to a number of resources that need to be put in place. Let us put them in place. The time for talk is long gone and we now need action to deal with all the matters to be addressed.