Statutory rape fallout - Government not out of woods yet

AS Ireland’s underage sex controversy continues to reverberate, the emergency measures unveiled yesterday by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are clearly intended to patch up the calamitous communications breakdown within Government and between departments.

On the face of it, Mr Ahern is striving to portray the past week as a dynamic triumph for Government rather than one of chaos, mayhem and disarray.

The sense of confusion persists, however, with the Taoiseach unsure of how many criminals are being held under the 1935 act on statutory rape of minors. Initially estimated at six, the figure could be as high as 20.

Given the communications gulf between Government offices, a visitor to this country might be forgiven for thinking the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Justice were on different planets.

It is not rocket science to suggest that Attorney General Rory Brady and Justice Minister Michael McDowell should be in regular contact on key issues, especially involving constitutional matters such as the Mr A case which sent the Coalition into a tailspin last week when the 1935 law was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

The lack of direct contact between the Attorney General’s office and the Justice Department on the highly sensitive question of protection of children is absolutely mind boggling. Judging by the degree of public outrage and the intensity of criticism levelled at the Government, this affair is likely to return and haunt the Coalition partners in next year’s general election.

The communications gulf between the two offices was brought into sharp focus by the High Court’s release of Mr A, who had raped a 12-year-old girl, a ruling subsequently reversed by the Supreme Court.

Having failed to gauge the temperature of public reaction, and after spurning demands for the flawed legislation to be immediately amended, the Government went into panic mode, performing a dramatic U-turn and rushing a new sex crimes bill through the Dáil.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, Mr A was back in jail before the new legislation, aspects of which are already being questioned on constitutional grounds, was signed into law by President Mary McAleese late on Friday.

This sorry affair underlines the extent to which the Fianna Fáil-PD coalition is out of touch with a public grown cynical about the political system. People are increasingly sceptical of politicians who are perceived as putting narrow party interests and personal interests above the tattered ideals of public service.

With the Government having rejected calls last week for a public inquiry into the Attorney General’s conduct of the Mr A case, it remains to be seen if the public will be convinced by the steps being taken to overhaul the reporting system in his office.

There is an urgent need to scrutinise the so-called early warning system put in place after the Fr Brendan Smyth sex abuse controversy had triggered the collapse of the Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition in 1994. Designed to give the Attorney General, and the Government, advance warning of potentially explosive cases, the system is clearly not working.

Unfortunately, the review will be conducted by a senior official from the Department of Finance. Arguably, such an inquiry should be carried out by an independent inspector. Otherwise, its findings will be perceived as a whitewash.

On a broader plane, it makes sense to appoint an expert group to examine the issues arising from the new legislation, including the age of consent, equality between the genders and the risk of criminalising teenagers.

Having failed to grasp the seriousness of the child sex crisis, and with another constitutional minefield looming, this Government is not out of the woods.