The Government last night rejected Fine Gael's offer to reach a pre-Christmas deal on stronger children's rights in the Constitution, if it held a pre-election referendum on tougher child abuse laws.
In a speech in Dublin the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny urged the Government not to go ahead with the wording it published on Monday that puts both issues together.
Instead, the Government should hold a pre-election referendum to ensure that adults can be prosecuted in all cases for having sex with minors, and that State agencies should be able to share information about suspected paedophiles.
"Take out the child protection issues. Take out the issues dealing with the zone of protection and 'soft' information and let's have a referendum on those issues," Mr Kenny told a Fine Gael rally in west Dublin last night.
"And let's have it as soon as possible so that the black hole which emerged last year [ when legislation making it a crime in all circumstances for an adult to have sex with a child was struck down] can be closed and closed quickly.
"This formula will allow the urgent measures to be put to the people and allow adequate time for the wider, more complex children's rights elements to be considered and debated in depth," he declared.
"After the election, no matter what the outcome, my party will commit to taking up these other issues with a view to reaching all-party agreement on a referendum before the end of the year," said the Fine Gael leader.
However, Mr Kenny's move was rejected quickly by the Minister of State for Children, Brian Lenihan, who insisted that the issues could, and should be, considered together.
He said he was "very glad" that the two main Opposition parties "had signed up" to supporting two of the provisions in the Constitutional amendment, and that they had not ruled out the others.
The full wording proposed by the Government, he said, should be carefully considered during a Second Stage debate in the Dáil.
"I am very glad that they have refrained from criticising the other proposals, other than to call then very complex.
" I believe that they are not as complex as they believe they are," Mr Lenihan told The Irish Times last night.
The Government has proposed a lengthy Constitutional amendment to acknowledge and affirm "the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children".
Under it, children of married couples could be adopted for the first time, while the courts would be obliged to "endeavour to secure the best interests of the child" in all adoption, guardianship, custody and access cases.
Dealing with protecting children from sexual abuse, it proposes to allow laws covering the collection and exchange of information dealing with the "endangerment, sexual exploitation or sexual abuse, or risk thereof, of children".
If accepted, the amendment would allow for the return of absolute and strict liability laws to the State's legal canon, following the decision in the so-called "C" case of the Supreme Court last year.
Earlier the leader of the Labour Party, Pat Rabbitte, said it was clear that the amendment could be "broken down" into two clear sections, dealing with child protection and child welfare.
"Does the Taoiseach accept that these are two easily distinguishable and separate issues? One issue relates to criminal law and the protection of children from sexual predators and the other relates to the welfare of children," he told Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
However, Mr Lenihan dismissed the view that the issues are separate ones that should be considered in separate referendums: "I wonder about having two separate votes on children in one year. It seems to me a remarkable proposal."
