The under-17s: Teenagers will start having sex whenever they want to, regardless of the legal age of consent, according to most teenagers queuing outside Wesley rugby club disco in Dublin yesterday evening.
"You're not supposed to smoke until you're 17, look at him?" said one teenage boy pointing at another. "And you're not supposed to drink until 18. I just met a girl who could barely walk. Teenagers are going to continue to do exactly as they please."
Most teenagers entering last night's disco were aged 14 to 16 and were well aware of Mr A and the frantic legal rush to bring in new legislation to protect children their age and younger from sex offenders. "Talking about sex has been hard to avoid this week because it's been all over the TV. It's hard to avoid it anyway," said one teenage boy in the queue.
Generally, most of the girls agreed that the legal age of consent as 17 for both sexes was sensible, but not necessarily workable.
"You should decide yourself. I don't think there can be one age for everyone. If I had to pick, I'd say 16," one girl commented as her friends nodded in agreement.
The boys, however, mostly thought 17 was far too old and completely unrealistic. "It should be 14 or 15 because lots of people have sex then," according to one 14-year-old boy.
Will telling people they're not supposed to have sex until 17 make them want to break that rule? "No. Boys will always want to have sex anyway," he added.
But both sexes largely agreed that it was "unfair, sexist and discriminatory" for a boy under 17 to face charges for having consensual sex with a girl under 17 while she would be protected by the law. Except for one 15-year-old boy, who took a different view.
"Well, she's the one who'll get pregnant isn't she? And you shouldn't be allowed have kids until you can afford to pay for them either," the boy said.
A few girls voiced the opinion that if some teenage boys are faced with the possibility of criminal prosecution as a consequence of under-age sex, they might stop pressuring girls.
"Not all boys pressurise but some do. Maybe this would scare them into growing up," one girl speculated.
Most teenagers agreed last night that consensual sex between teenagers aged 15 and up was fine, so long as they were responsible about it.