Seanad debates

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Directive of European Parliament on Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children: Statements

 

11:55 am

Photo of Terry LeydenTerry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Donohoe, back to the House and the senior officials from the Department of Justice and Equality. He played an important role here when he was a Senator. I am rather amazed by his warm endorsement of the Government's wish to abolish the Seanad and noticed that he has participated in numerous television programmes supporting the Government's view. I am surprised by that because he played an important role here and the Seanad played an important role during his period as Senator. However, life moves on and I wish him well in the future.

Fianna Fáil supports the full and speedy implementation of the European Union directives on combatting sexual abuse and child pornography. The scourge of such predatory sexual activity needs to be tackled with a strong legal framework and an adequately resourced Garda. The gross misuse of the Internet for such disturbing criminal acts needs to be addressed on an international scale thus recognising the global nature of the problem.

I commend the document produced by Senator van Turnhout on online child abuse material entitled Effective Strategies to Tackle Online Child Abuse Material. The Department's officials are aware of her document and will use it when working on the Bill. The document has been extraordinarily well researched and is extremely good. I compliment the Senator on her document. If ever there was proof positive that the Seanad comprises people of very diverse views and knowledge then the document is a clear indication of the work of Senator van Turnhout and her colleagues. The Seanad has given her and her organisation a unique platform to convey the information direct to the senior officials in the Department of Justice and Equality. If the Seanad is abolished that opportunity will be lost.

The EU directive is due to be transposed by December 2013 but, unfortunately, it has taken time to reach that point. It is critical that the directive is placed into Irish law as soon as possible and adequate resources are given to the Garda to ensure its effective implementation. I do not believe that the directive was scrutinised by either House of the Oireachtas. Perhaps the Minister of State can elaborate on that position. Far too many directives are not being scrutinised here and 164 directives have been transposed into Irish law without any debate in either House.

With regard to reform, the Dáil will allocate some days in April and October to scrutinise European legislation. I am sure it will be generous and effective for the amount of legislation that will reach the Houses of the Oireachtas. There is a definite commitment in the Lisbon treaty, both the first and second treaties, that the Houses of the Oireachtas would scrutinise all European legislation.

No European directive should be transposed into Irish law without it being scrutinised by either House of the Oireachtas. The committees spend some time on them, but it is a very time-consuming arrangement. We could also have an input from our MEPs.

The issue of sexual abuse and child pornography is an acute sensitive one, given the vulnerability of the young victims involved. It is a heinous crime. The grave exploitation of this vulnerability and the use of the Internet to bypass national laws demands a co-ordinated global response. The European Union has rightly played a leading role in developing a pan-continental response to this problem. These are particularly serious crimes against children, who need special protection and care, and they produce long-lasting and serious harm to child victims. However, fighting these crimes is very difficult. Children are vulnerable, and are often ashamed and too afraid to report what has happened to them.

To implement the directive effectively, real resources have to be given to the Garda Síochána to pursue and convict the criminals involved in these horrendous activities. We cannot refer to any case pending at the moment, but I hope the necessary action is taken by the Government to co-operate in respect of a person who is facing charges in another jurisdiction. Very serious allegations are being made about a particular individual at the moment. The directive includes provision not only for the prosecution of offenders but also for the prevention of offences and the protection of child victims. It provides for the right of employers to ask for information on criminal records and for awareness-raising campaigns and the training of professionals as preventative measures.

The new directive will make it easier to fight crimes against children by acting on different fronts. On criminal law, a wide range of situations of sexual abuse and exploitation will be criminalised, covering new phenomena helped by the Internet like child grooming and web cam or web viewing of child pornography. More detailed provisions outline six levels of penalties from one to ten years of imprisonment. This will ensure greater consistency in classifications of the severity of the offence and will reduce the difference between the legislation of member states. To combat offences by travelling sex offenders and so-called child sex tourism, national authorities will be able to prosecute nationals abusing children abroad and organising travel to abuse children, and advertising sex abuse opportunities will be prohibited. To facilitate the criminal prosecution of offenders, it will now be possible to initiate a case in all member states up to and until the time child victims reach the age of majority. Confidentiality rules will no longer be an obstacle to preventing professionals working with children from reporting offences, and the police will be obliged to set up special units to identify child victims of child pornography with effective investigative tools. Child victims will enjoy more protection in the form of extensive assistance and support following an individual assessment of each child, as well as measures to facilitate access to legal remedies and avoid the trauma of participating in criminal proceedings.

To prevent sexual abuse and exploitation, convicted offenders will be individually assessed and will have access to special programmes to prevent them from committing new offences. Background checks for candidates applying to work with children will be easier and more comprehensive, and education awareness campaigns and training to detect child sexual exploitation will be deployed. To disrupt the distribution of child pornography on the Internet, member states will be obliged to ensure child pornography pages hosted in their territory are removed and to take action to have them removed if hosted abroad. They may also set up procedures to block access from their territories if they wish, but while that can be controlled in the EU, sites can be located in third countries. There must be, therefore, an international arrangement to prevent the distribution of child pornography or any other kind of pornography.

The danger associated with the access to pornography through the Internet is in the exploitation of young people. There was a recent case which occurred at an event here in Dublin and which was sent around the Internet. That was damaging for all involved, and the future of the person involved could be destroyed. I do not know if it was taken down, but those films can never be removed. They are out there somewhere and it is just so dangerous.

The Government is giving this priority. I know that from its work during the Presidency and I commend the Minister's report on the issue and wish him well in proceeding with this as quickly as possible.

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