Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Over the last two decades child pornography and online grooming, in particular, have become increasingly widespread both at a national and international level. As such, I am particularly encouraged that this Bill includes two new offences that target online sexual predators so as to protect children from exploitation by way of new technologies, including social media. This Bill includes provisions to criminalise adults who contact children either online or through mobile communications, such as text messaging, for the purpose of sexually exploiting the child. This offence is targeted at the initial stages of grooming and does not require physical contact or meeting between the adult and child in question. The penalty of up to 14 years' imprisonment reflects the serious nature and intent behind the communication and I welcome this in particular.

The Bill also includes the offence of sending sexually explicit material to a child. This new provision protects children from unwarranted and unwanted advances. This is also recognition that the intention behind this type of activity may be to expose the child to such material with a view to developing the child's familiarity with such material or activity.

The Minister has already outlined many of the provisions of the Bill but other new provisions in the Bill which I am very much in favour of include the strengthening of offences to tackle child pornography, the strengthening of the post-release supervision and monitoring of sex offenders, and the introduction of a new harassment order. It also addresses the gender anomaly in incest law.

Sections 3 to 8, in particular, introduce a range of offences that target the sexual exploitation of children. The new offences relate to: paying for the purpose of sexually exploiting a child; invitation to sexual touching; sexual activity in the presence of a child; causing a child to watch sexual activity; and making arrangements to meet a child for the purpose of sexually exploiting that child. New provisions included in the Bill will increase the penalty for incest by a female to up to life imprisonment in line with the existing penalty for incest. Heavy imprisonment penalties for all these new offences will hopefully be a sufficient deterrent and provide a significant step in combatting the risks posed to our children.

This Bill also contains a number of amendments to the Criminal Evidence Act 1992 which are intended to protect child victims of sexual offences from any additional trauma which may arise as a result of giving evidence during a criminal trial, such as extending the use of video recorded evidence and limiting the circumstances in which an accused can personally cross-examine a child witness. Moreover, additional protection will now be provided for victims of sexual offences who are at risk of continuing to be a target of their attacker. Persons convicted of sexual offences and who are to serve a sentence of imprisonment may be prohibited by court order from making contact with their victim.

On the specific issue of child pornography, this Bill includes provisions which strengthen the existing child pornography laws by specifically setting out the very wide range of activities and behaviours related to child pornography which will constitute a criminal offence and which will attract serious penalties. Building on existing offences, the new offences include recruitment of a child or arranging for a child to participate in a pornographic performance, attending a pornographic performance involving a child or organising child prostitution or child pornography. Moreover, offences relating to the possession and distribution of child pornography are strengthened, as the Minister has outlined.

This Bill criminalises the purchase of sexual service. This is a crucial addition if we are to successfully tackle the scourge of sex trafficking. This Bill introduces two new offences that criminalise paying for sexual activity with a prostitute. These offences specifically target the demand for prostitution. The first is a general offence of paying to engage in sexual activity with a prostitute and the second is the more serious offence of paying to engage in such sexual activity with a person who has been trafficked. I see no ambiguity here or confusion between the two. In both cases, the person providing the sexual service does not commit an offence. This approach seeks to address the very real and tragic crimes of trafficking and exploitation associated with prostitution. This provision mirrors the approach adopted in Northern Ireland and in other jurisdictions where there has been a reduction in demand and, notably, over time, an increase in support for similar laws. As such, this Bill reflects an all-island consensus on targeting the exploitative nature of prostitution. It is my understanding that the Minister also today confirmed that she is examining the possibility of introducing proposals to decriminalise a person offering sexual service from the existing offences of soliciting and loitering for the purposes of prostitution under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993.

In conclusion, this Bill is crucial because it will bring Irish law into line with a number of international instruments including an EU directive on combatting the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. It is also a further step towards the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. I commend this Bill to the House and thank the Minister and her officials for the hard work on the legislation.