Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

Last July the Government approved the scheme of a Bill that involves a general offence of grooming. The Department is working on it, in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General. I had hoped it would be published by now but other matters have held it back. I commend Fine Gael on not taking all of the UK legislation and using it in its Private Members' Bill because some of it is problematic. The party used discriminatory judgment to include some aspects and omit others.

Senator Ryan has a point in that grooming is not totally criminalised by the provisions of the Fine Gael Private Members' Bill that I have included. I cannot provide the House with a satisfactory formula and, given that we are legislating in a hurry, I do not wish to slap down any old thing and then find the Bill challenged in the Supreme Court under Article 26 because I have gone too far. This must be a workable law and the State must be able to prosecute people under it. Fine Gael avoided the mishmash that would follow from copying UK legislation into an Irish Bill. This could cause immense difficulty. I ask people to give us a few months to get this right rather than attempting something dubious.