Call to press ahead with child abuse law

Children’s charities have urged the Government to give children a Christmas present of protection by pressing ahead with a new law on sexual predators.

Four groups — Barnardos, the Children’s Rights Alliance, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and the Immigrant Council of Ireland — joined forces to take their message to the Dáil.

They want no let-up on the progress of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, fearing that if it’s left much longer it could get elbowed out of the way by other business in the run-up to the election.

The bill will make it an offence to groom children for sexual exploitation and strengthen measures against online predators and child pornography.

The four charity heads said: “The Sexual Offences Bill is an opportunity to protect some of the most vulnerable children in Ireland from sexual predators determined to exploit them in the general community, online and in child prostitution.

“The measures it proposes have been the subject of lengthy debate and it is important that we see political leadership from all sides now so that this important piece of legislation does not fall by the wayside ahead of the general election.”

The bill also makes it a crime to buy sexual services — a key demand of more than 70 groups who have signed up to the Turn Off The Red Light campaign and who say the way to tackle prostitution and sex trafficking is to end demand for purchased sex.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald told the Seanad last week that amendments to the bill would also be made to simultaneously decriminalise the sale of sex so that those working in prostitution were not targeted for prosecution.

The bill also remedies the gender anomaly on incest as currently the offence applies only to male offenders, and it creates a two-year proximity clause around the age of consent which safeguards teenagers from automatic prosecution where one or both are below the legal age of consent but they are engaged in consensual sex.