The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, announced last night that he intended to close off the legal loophole in child protection law identified by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, writes Stephen Collins, Political Editor.
He maintained, however, that the issue was a relatively minor one, as there were already far more stringent legal provisions against the sexual exploitation of minors.
In the Dáil yesterday, Mr Rabbitte surprised Mr McDowell by pointing out that the offence of soliciting or importuning a child for sex contained in the Children Act of 2001 had been repealed in emergency legislation rushed through the Oireachtas last summer to deal with the statutory rape crisis.
After consultations with Department of Justice officials and legal experts the Minister issued a statement last night pointing out that aiding, abetting, attempting, counselling or procuring the commission of sexual offences against children were very serious offences under the criminal law.
"My attention was drawn today to the fact that the 2006 Act, passed last year by the Oireachtas, had the effect of limiting the previous scope of section 6 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993, as amended by section 250 of the Children Act, 2001.
"Section 6 creates a minor offence triable only in the District Court and for which there is no power of detention for questioning. There have been no convictions recorded in Garda annual reports for the last five years," said Mr McDowell. He added that the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 made it a serious offence for any person to organise or knowingly facilitate the use of a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation, including "inducing or coercing the child to participate in any sexual activity which is an offence under any enactment". The same Act also made it an offence to distribute any information by any means relating to a child which indicated that a child was available to be used for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
"These are serious offences punishable by 14 years imprisonment and suspects can be detained for questioning for up to 24 hours.
"In these circumstances, the Garda authorities have advised me that current criminal law contains a major series of offences punishable by very severe penalties for any person who aids, abets, counsels, procures or attempts to commit a sexual offence against a child, or who organises the use of a child for such purpose or who distributes such information about a child whether by internet, phone, text message or otherwise," said Mr McDowell.
He said that legislation on sexual "grooming" of children had been approved by the Government last July and is now being drafted in the Attorney General's office.
"In relation to the minor District Court offence under section 6 of the 1993 Act, I thank Deputy Rabbitte for pointing out the anomaly and it is my intention at the earliest available opportunity to reapply its provisions to sexual offences against children.
"But the public should be aware that the Garda have a wealth of indictable offences at their disposal with which to fully investigate the activities of paedophile rings and with which to prosecute any person attempting to prey sexually on young children," he said.
Mr Rabbitte raised the issue in the Dáil yesterday in the context of the Garda investigation into an alleged Dublin paedophile ring. The Labour leader maintained that the emergency legislation last summer omitted the offence of soliciting or importuning a child for sexual purposes.