Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am committed to publishing the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023 before the summer recess.

The Bill will implement important reforms in relation to knowledge of consent, ensure anonymity for victims and the accused in sexual offence trials and will clear the final legislative hurdles for ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

The Bill will also put a revised National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in place for identification and support of victims of trafficking and will implement recommendations by the Independent Review Group into the Defence Forces to amend the Defence Act 1954 to ensure that persons subject to military law who commit sexual offences in this jurisdiction will be dealt with by An Garda Síochána and the civilian courts rather than by courts-martial.

Pre-legislative scrutiny was carried out on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2022 on 6 December last and the report of the Committee was published on 8 March 2023. The addition of the Defence Act 1954 amendments was agreed further to publication of the Independent Review Group Report at the end of March, and has entailed close cooperation between my Department, the Department of Defence and the Attorney General’s Office in the period since then.

I will publish the Bill this month after which time a date will be sought for the Bill to be debated by the Oireachtas.