Emergency legislation to ensure that adults can be prosecuted for soliciting sexual acts from children was signed into law this evening.
A statement by President Mary McAleese confirmed the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill 2007 "has been signed this evening pursuant to the Constitution and has accordingly become law".
Under the new law, which was rushed through the Dáil last night and the Seanad today, adults face up to five years in jail, while gardaí have powers to arrest suspects for questioning, which they have not been able to do up to now.
The Bill was drafted following the Labour Party's highlighting of a loophole last week.
While acknowledging last night that a gap existed, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell said it was "not as significant as has been claimed in some quarters".
He also rejected Labour charges that the Government's legislation was unconstitutional because it does not allow for an accused to argue that he did not know the age of a child.
Under the 1993 Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, adults were liable for a Ir£1,000 fine, and up to 12 months in jail, if they were convicted of soliciting sexual acts from a child.
The soliciting offence in the 1993 legislation was superseded by the 2000 Children's Act, though this only marginally increased the possible fine from Ir£1,000 to €1,900, leaving the possible jail sentence unchanged.
Legislation passed last year in the wake of the statutory rape crisis, when a man was released at one point even though he had had sex with a 12-year-old girl, had "regrettably" omitted to repeat such powers, the Minister said.
However he denied that children had been left vulnerable to sexual predators since powers to convict soliciting of minors included in 1993 legislation had not been used for several years.