Child protection submissions deadline extended

THE deadline for public submissions to the newly formed Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection has been extended following complaints that too little time was allowed for people to get their views on paper.

Submissions on a wide range of child protection issues will now be accepted up to tomorrow week, Thursday, August 31. The original deadline was advertised in newspaper notices on July 24 and expired last weekend.

The extension was granted following pleas by Monica Rowe, the Dublin mother behind this summer’s protests over the child rape law crisis that led to the special committee being set up. She welcomed the extension but said it did not go far enough.

“We were also only given three-and-a-half weeks to respond and it’s still going to be very tight to get the word around by August 31. It would have been fairer to give people until at least the middle of September,” she said.

The committee was set up in the wake of the controversy that followed the Supreme Court ruling of last May that found unconstitutional the law that said a male was automatically guilty of a sex offence if he had sex with a girl under 15, regardless of his age or his knowledge of the girl’s age.

The ruling led to the temporary release from prison of a child rapist, who was able to argue that his constitutional right to defend himself had not been upheld during his trial. Public outcry followed.

Under the terms of reference, the committee is to examine the implications of the Supreme Court ruling, plus a wide range of associated child protection issues, but Ms Rowe said this was not clear from the way the notice for submissions was worded.

“It was very legalistic and off-putting. It can be very difficult for me, the ordinary person, to understand, yet this is supposed to be an invitation to the public to get involved,” she said.

The Committee will take submissions on the Supreme Court case, the law governing sex offences against children, the age of consent for sex, the requirement for children to give evidence in public court in abuse cases, and the desirability of amending the Constitution to include a specific right of protection for children.

The 13-member committee has representatives from all the main Oireachtas parties and includes Justice Minister Michael McDowell and Children’s Minister Brian Lenihan.

Submissions can be made in writing to the Joint Committee on Child Protection, Kildare House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, or by email at [e-mail].