Age of consent - Are children to be seen as ‘criminals’?

Speaking on behalf of the Catholic Hierarchy, Bishop Willie Walsh criticised a recent suggestion in the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection recommending the lowering of the age of sexual consent.

The bishop warmly welcomed most of the report but expressed a “serious concern” about lowering to 16 years the age of sexual consent between minors.

Bishop Walsh stated that it seems to him that legislators are following the lines that they are just in some way tidying up the legal side of things, because some teenagers are engaged in sexual activity. He says that politicians should afford leadership and be concerned about the moral, social and physical aspects of the issue.