Emergency child sex law set for Dáil

The Government is to rush legislation through the Dáil next week to close a loophole in the laws on soliciting children for sex.

The Government decided today to discuss the issue in the Dáil next Tuesday evening after the loophole was highlighted by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte yesterday.

It is expected an amendment to current legislation will pass all stages within a number of hours on Tuesday evening and will pass all stages in the Seanad on Wednesday morning.

Mr Rabbitte pointed out that the offence of soliciting or importuning a child for sex contained in the Children Act of 2001 had been repealed in emergency legislation rushed through the Oireachtas last summer to deal with the statutory rape crisis.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, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell 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," Mr McDowell added.

Today, however, it was decided to debate the matter in the Dáil on Tuesday.

Mr Rabbitte welcomed today's move to deal with the "serious gap in our laws for the protection of children against sex abusers.

"This indicates that the issue is being taken with a degree of seriousness and urgency that was not immediately apparent from the statements of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell," Mr Rabbitte said.

"The Tánaiste seemed originally to argue that the offence of soliciting children was a relatively minor matter, but I do not think there is a single other parent in the country who would agree with him."