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Dail to Deal With Child Sex Loophole
Read more about: Crime, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Government, Law, Progressive Democrats
The Dail is to see two seperate pieces of legislation today, designed to shut off the loophole which Labour pointed to last week. Fine Gael have a private members bill in the Dail specifically making the “grooming” of a child for sex/pornography a criminal offence, while the Justice Minister has tabled emergency legislation designed to do a similar job. The Justice Minister’s bill (Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007 ) is to be through all stages of the house by 23:30 this evening.
At present the electronic copy of the Minister’s bill is not online however the succinctness of the Fine Gael bill is noteworthy. Considering that the criticism levelled at the government amidst this is that they legilated on too much too quickly following the CC case back in July.
EDIT: The government bill is online here.
2) One final edit, in light of the fact that this legislation was prompted last week by the response to stories of a fourteen year old boy being part of a paedophile ring, I just want to refer readers to a very interesting take on the reportage of the story (especially yesterdays Tribune) by Suzy and Fergal.
My father always maintains that you do the job in front of you and take one step at a time.
The media seems to be getting a little confused about which Bill is doing what - RTÉ this morning had McDowell’s Bill dealing with grooming…
Actually Keith it appears McDowell has cogged the FG grooming bill from 3 years ago wholesale!
Keith, two bills on the floor today dealing with the same issue. Fine Gael private members bill on the issue of making “grooming” of children for sexual exploitation illegal and the government bill of the same theme.
McDowell’s bill has to be passed through all stages by 11:30 this evening while the FG bill goes to stage two if passed.
Dan, I looked at the government bill, it seems to deal more extensively with the affected legislation but its much longer and deals with more law than the FG one of today. Any link to the bill from 3 years ago for us?
I was working off the remarks from the RTe pol corr on 1 o’clock news.
FG have changed their Private Members’ Bill to a joint Bill between FG, Labour & Greens on rail freight. I think that’s the first time the Greens have joined in on a joint FG/Labour motion (joint proposal, as opposed to support).
On a trivial note, the government has a new trend of bringing emergency legislation on the evenings of Champions League matches.