Opinion among churches and organisations involved with young people appear divided on the proposal of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection that the age of consent for sex be reduced from 17 to 16.
The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev John Neill, said yesterday he was "fairly happy" with the committee's proposal, which he felt was "realistic". He said that "morality enforced by law removes all element of moral choice".
The archbishop continued: "We have to be somewhat realistic in making law. We encourage and teach moral decisions but I would hate to see us enforcing it by law. You can take this kind of thing to the extreme and put a law against adultery - you don't stop adultery but you criminalise it.
"I fear the same could happen over sexual activity amongst 16-year-olds, which I don't wish to see but I do not want to see it criminalised." Following their three-day winter meeting at Maynooth this week Ireland's Catholic bishops issued a statement on Wednesday saying they viewed "with alarm" the proposal to reduce the age of consent to 16.
They also expressed "amazement" that politicians and public opinion-makers "shy away from confronting the basic demands of morality, namely what is right and wrong" in the context.
Yesterday, the chief executive of Barnardos, Fergus Finlay, said that while the agency broadly welcomed the Oireachtas committee proposals, they remained "ambivalent" about its recommendation to reduce the age of consent to 16.
"Some believe it is sensible and realistic, while others [ in Barnardos] would like it to be higher," he said.
Personally, on balance, he felt that not to lower the age of consent risked criminalising young people in the context of today's realities. The real issue for Barnardos was the protection of children from statutory rape, he said, in which context they welcomed the proposed referendum on children's rights and the Oireachtas committee proposal that those in authority over children, who sexually abused any of their charges under 18, should be subject to the criminal law.
The chief executive of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Paul Gilligan, welcomed the Catholic bishops' statement. "It is important that their views are known in the context of debate on the issue as the moral and spiritual development of children is as important as their social and psychological development," he said.
He was concerned that the committee proposal to reduce the age of consent could add further to the sexualising of children at an earlier age but he was not strongly opposed to it either. However, he felt that lowering the age would need a strong rationale.
Ellen O'Malley Dunlop, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said they wanted to keep the age of consent at 17 years.
This was "not from a moral perspective but out of concern for the protection of the young".
The perception that "young people are having sex all over the place, is not true", she said.
