The Government has been urged to introduce new laws to allow the collection of “soft” information on the backgrounds of people seeking to work with children.
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children published an interim report tonight and said it accepted legal advice and the views expressed in the "vast majority" of submissions made to it that a Constitutional referendum is not required to give effect to such legislation.
"Soft" information is information that gives rise to concerns about an individual's danger to children, without a conviction having been obtained against that person.
The committee, set up to examine a constitutional referendum on children's rights, recommends the establishment of a statutory scheme to regulate the manner in which records of criminal convictions and information, including 'soft' information on the risk or the occurence of sexual exploitation or abuse can be stored and used by the Garda and other statutory agencies.
All people involved in working in any capacity with children would be vetted under the new law. State agencies, clubs, educational establishments and any group working with children would also have to ensure all of those working in a voluntary or paid capacity were vetted.
The committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Mary O'Rourke, recommended that the legislation be brought before the Oireachtas by this Christmas.
Ms O'Rourke said the recommendations set out were based on the "unanimous consensus" of the committee and that the move would "greatly strengthen child protection within the State".
The committee said it accepted the legal advice from its own legal advisers and the views of the Attorney General that a referendum was not necessary to implement this particular legislation.
Ms O'Rourke said that with the completion of the interim report published today, the committee would continue its work towards finalisation of a report by its deadline.
Last month, Ms O'Rourke said there was a need for a referendum "on what you might call ‘pure’ children’s rights, [putting] the rights of a child on a par with the rights of adults”, but added: “There is a need for a referendum on that but what we must do first is move to shore up the provisions and the law against predators and people preying on under-age girls” she said. Issues such as the sharing of “soft information” could be dealt with through legislation.
Fine Gael said this week it would not remain on the Oireachtas child protection committee unless the Government committed itself to honouring a promise to hold a children's referendum.
Publishing Fine Gael's own proposals on Monday, Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter said the Cabinet had "secretly decided" to abandon the referendum, despite then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern's "solemn promise" of April 2007 to hold one.