The President, Mary McAleese, has signed into law emergency legislation governing sexual offences against children under the age of 17.
Last night the Sexual Offences Act 2006 was passed in both the Dáil and the Seanad.
The Act, which was supported by Opposition parties, restoreed the offence of statutory rape to the statute books and set 17 as the age of consent for boys and girls. It also provides stiffer penalties for sex offences committed by people in authority like teachers or sports coaches.
Engaging in a sexual act with a child between 15 and 17 will be punishable by up to five years in jail, or ten years where the accused was a person in authority.
The new Act came in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment striking down a section of a 1935 law on statutory rape.
That ruling has resulted in multiple applications from people serving sentences for having sex with underage girls, on the basis that the law under which they were convicted was unconstitutional.