Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the first instance, I welcome this Bill. I congratulate Senator Flynn on the work she has done on this, which is clearly extensive. It is not an easy task to approach the Statute Book with a view to carrying out an amendment that will cover all the bases. It is an arduous task to go through it. We can see that from the fact that a statute law revision project within the Office of the Attorney General has been going on for 20 years now. It is a long way away from making serious inroads into the massive volume of legislation of the past, much of which predates Ireland as a State. However, some of the legislation needs to be updated and changed. It is therefore welcome and laudable when an individual Member of the House takes the time, effort and enormous work that is concerned in embarking on a project like this. I therefore thank Senator Flynn and I congratulate her for that work.

I am just thinking about some of the speeches here, some of which mentioned the use of language and its importance. I am thinking of other terms that exist in legislation, because that term “child pornography” is not the only outdated term in our legislation. There are many others. It would not be fair to expect Senator Flynn to have gone through every piece of legislation and to have identified all the appalling terms. However, for example, the Aliens Act, is a really silly title and it is totally outdated. This nomenclature is not used any more. Even thinking about this area of child abuse and child sexual exploitation, when I worked here as a non-Member of the Houses, at one time there was a CC v. Ireland case in the Supreme Court, which struck down section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1935.That offence was unlawful carnal knowledge; an extraordinarily genteel term for rape of a child. One of the things at the centre of this debate and Bill and the work that has been done by Senator Flynn is the importance of calling things what they are. Reference was made to the Fix It campaign. That is tremendously important. I was looking through one of our national newspapers and saw the headline that read, "Man who impregnated girl, 15, who he thought was his daughter jailed for 12 years after pleading guilty to rape". That creates so many problems, as if somehow the fact he thought she was his daughter qualified it in any way and instead he pleaded guilty to rape.

Calling these things what they are is tremendously important. We are behind the curve on these issues. Even the original legislation that is being amended by this Bill is from 1998. This material predates 1998. In fact, for a long time in this country, there was a view that this kind of child exploitation material was victimless. There is an extraordinary difference between not being able to identify the victim and suggesting that it is victimless. We know that even if the child who is being exploited by these materials is in the Philippines, the United States or Ireland, that child is still a victim and will bear the scars and damage of that exploitation for the rest of his or her life.

It is incredibly important for these Houses to not only acknowledge that these are serious matters, and I believe the law does that, but also to call them for what they are. The term "language is important" was used earlier. It absolutely is. We have seen that in many other areas too but calling it what it is important. It is not child pornography; it is child sexual exploitation material. It is not underage sex; it is rape of a minor. It is not non-consensual sex; it is rape. Call it what it is because until we do, we do not understand what it is. It is incredibly important that the law calls it what it is because then we are sending out a really clear signal that we, as a State and a body politic, know and understand what it is and we are not going to stand for it.

Many speakers said today that they do not want to think about this material, which totally understandable, and they have not thought about the material. That is also understandable. Unfortunately, in my professional life, I have thought about this material. I have been involved in a number of cases involving child exploitation material. I can say that generally speaking, in the context of the courtroom, the terms that is used is "child exploitation material". Obviously, the legislative term is different and that will be referred to but in terms of discussing the issue, we generally use that term. There is a very clear understanding at that level of the damaging nature of this material and the incredible damage it does, not only to the victim of the actual exploitation but also to everybody who sees it. They are also damaged, whether they realise it or not. The call in this legislation, which is clarion in nature, is that we call it out for what it is and show we understand what it is and that we will not accept it. It is tremendously important. Once again, I want to put on the record my praise and admiration for Senator Flynn in terms of the work that is being done here. I welcome the fact that Government is accepting this Bill. I look forward to it becoming law so we can stop using that awful term.