Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fail to see how the Minister of State's argument that some cases might involve consent proves the case that the maximum sentence should be ten years as opposed to 14 years. We are not talking about mandatory sentencing here. We are talking about a range of options that are open to the court in a range of circumstances, and if there is not consent, the ceiling is hit at ten years, whereas in the case of the person not in authority, the ceiling is not hit until 14 years. I am open to the views of colleagues on this since I have come a little later to this than they have, but I do not think the Minister of State's argument about consent in any way addresses it.