Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I do not want to cut into time for amendments on the other Stages of the Bill. I fully agree with the views expressed in this House that we need a sexual offences Bill of a comprehensive kind. Although it was not given major coverage, I indicated last night in the Dáil that I intend to ask the codification committee, which has just been established and is operational in association with University College Dublin, to make this area its first priority. The existing law is spread over a series of statutes, which is why this mistake was made in the first place. It is very impenetrable and is now becoming increasingly interlinked with cross-references between all these Acts. The second reason for doing so is that the joint committee that deals with child protection, which was established in the aftermath of the emergency legislation last year, was of the view that we needed a comprehensive statute.

I do not like rushed legislation. I wish to say this here because I would get howled down if I tried to say it in the other House. When I asked for a fortnight or three weeks on the previous occasion last year I was howled at from the editorial columns asking me on what planet I was living. I said there was no great big black hole and that we had time to get it right.