Rape law crisis probe ready to be published

A probe into Government failures in the recent underage rape legislation controversy could be published tonight or tomorrow, the Taoiseach said today.

The Cabinet was plunged into a political crisis in May when the Supreme Court declared a 1935 statutory rape law was unconstitutional and the Justice Minister had to rush emergency legislation through the Oireachtas to plug a loophole in the statute books.

A senior Finance Department official, Eddie Sullivan was later asked by the Government to examine an apparent breakdown in communications between the offices of the DPP and the Attorney General on the matter.

Opposition leader Enda Kenny today told the Dáil he feared the Sullivan Report would be published during the summer recess without a proper Dáil debate.

Mr Kenny also inquired about an all-party Oireachtas Committee being set up to study child protection legislation.

“We must have an opportunity to discuss the Sullivan report to learn from it. Arising from a serious constitutional crisis, it is important that we find out, based on the Sullivan report, what happened and what went wrong,” he said.

Mr Ahern replied: “I have endeavoured to ensure the Sullivan report will be published tonight or tomorrow. I have no difficulty with people raising this issue. I do not think there is anything in the report that will have a bearing on matters, other than that I hope some lessons will be learned from it.”

The Supreme Court is expected to publish its written judgment on Monday on the sex offender known as ’Mr A.’

’Mr A’ successfully challenged his continued detention under the 1935 law and briefly walked free before being re-arrested when the Supreme Court overturned the earlier High Court decision.