FG calls for clarity on children’s rights referendum

FINE GAEL last night called on the Government to end confusion on whether a referendum on children’s rights would still go ahead.

The party’s frontbench spokesman Alan Shatter warned that without a constitutional amendment, children would not have full protection under the law.

“Ministers must clarify whether they have abandoned the commitment, given in February 2007 and repeated in the Programme for Government, to hold a constitutional referendum to enable the Oireachtas reinstate the offence of statutory rape to protect children’.