The Government has sent its strongest signal yet that a referendum to deal with the fallout from the statutory rape controversy will not be held until after next year's election.
There is growing consensus within the Coalition that the issues involved, including a proposed lowering of the sexual age of consent, are too sensitive to be put before the people in the run-up to an election.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan indicated as much yesterday when he said the matter would be "difficult for us to deal with in the short term".
He added: "I don't think we should set a time frame or even politicise it. It is just too sensitive for this."
The matter is not expected to be discussed at today's Cabinet meeting and is not on the agenda for the weekly Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting. Senior Government sources said yesterday that there is a strong expectation that the matter will die down over Christmas and will not be dealt with before the summer election.
Meanwhile there are deepening divisions between potential government partners Fine Gael and Labour on lowering the age consent from 17 to 16 years.
A Labour member of the Oireachtas Child Protection Committee, which recommended that the age of consent be lowered, Senator Derek McDowell, has strongly criticised Fine Gael and its leader Enda Kenny for its position.
The three Fine Gael members on the committee opposed the recommendation.
In an article in today's Irish Times, Mr McDowell said it is important there is a real public debate and to that extent he welcome the statement of the Catholic bishops. He added: "I take a rather less benign view of the Fine Gael position. I confess that when I heard Enda Kenny on the radio last week I asked myself, not for the first time in recent weeks, if we are really on the same side."
Mr McDowell said he does not believe that a teenage boy of say 16 or 17 who has consensual sex with a girl just shy of her 17th birthday should be forever branded a rapist. He said the argument against lowering the age of consent has been made most vocally by the Catholic bishops, who spoke about the need for morality to play a greater part, and the leader of Fine Gael.
The chairman of the Oireachtas Child Protection Committee, Fianna Fáil TD Peter Power, said yesterday there has been a lot of confusion around the issue and stressed that the recommendation from the committee to reduce the age of consent from 17 to 16 was part of a package of several important child protection proposals.
Martin Long, director of the Catholic Communications Office, said the bishops made their views known on the age of consent issue in a statement after their June meeting.
The statement said the bishops "strongly oppose the lowering of the age of consent as this can only increase the likelihood that young people will be drawn into premature sexual experiences, thus ultimately setting back the goal of a mature and loving sexual relationship within marriage.