FINE GAEL will make a concerted attempt in the Dáil to force the Government to honour its commitment to hold a referendum on the issue of statutory rape, the party leader, Enda Kenny, has pledged.
He accused the Government of reneging on its commitment in the Programme for Government to hold a referendum on the issue and said he was now determined to put the matter to a vote in the Dáil.
In 2006 the Supreme Court struck down the law which made a conviction for statutory rape automatic in the case of an adult having sex with a minor. The court ruled that the defence of “honest mistake” should be recognised.
“I think the Government’s attitude to this is absolutely scandalous. The Programme for Government was drafted by Brian Cowen. And that contained a very clear reference to having a children’s rights referendum,” said Mr Kenny.
“If we don’t get a clear commitment from Brian Cowen fairly quickly, we will draft our own private members Bill on this and bring it before the House.” Mr Kenny said the Fine Gael referendum Bill would deal specifically with the issue of statutory rape, leaving aside the wider issue of children’s rights for the moment.
Mr Kenny said the Government had established an Oireachtas committee to bring about a deeper understanding of what was involved in the issue but it was now clear following statements by the committee chairwoman, Mary O’Rourke, and the Minister for Children, Barry Andrews, that they were not going to honour the referendum commitment.
“What you have now is a clear reneging on a specific commitment given which is so important. I want to issue a challenge to Brian Cowen and I want to state it quite clearly as a public representative and as a father.
“The Director of Public Prosecutions has made it clear he is not able to pursue cases in the court without constitutional backing.
“The Dublin Rape Crisis centre has stated quite clearly that people are not coming forward now because the position is not clear. It only requires a few of these cases to happen where the person committing rape says they didn’t know the person was under age and there is no case to convict them.”
Mr Kenny also issued a strong defence of comments about immigration made by three of his front bench colleagues. He said that immigration was an issue that affects the country and people should not be afraid to speak out on the challenges it posed for the country and the immigrants themselves.
“In the last few weeks we have had serious and personalised attacks on three Fine Gael deputies, Denis Naughten, Brian Hayes and Leo Varadkar by Thomas Byrne, Mary Hanafin and Conor Lenihan. Each of these has been a hysterical reaction done deliberately by Fianna Fáil who want to put their heads in the sand again and not want to speak about challenges that are out there,” he said.
