The Tánaiste, Mary Harney, and the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Brian Lenihan, have indicated that they support plans to introduce Anti-social Behaviour Orders (Asbos) despite criticism of the move by the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan.
A spokeswoman for Mr Lenihan, who recommended the appointment of Ms Logan to her post in 2003, claimed his perspective on the matter is "identical" to sentiments expressed by the Tánaiste, Mary Harney, yesterday.
Responding to Ms Logan's criticisms, Ms Harney claimed the introduction of Asbos is necessary "as a last resort".
"The Ombudsman for Children obviously has to be listened to. That is her role, to be an advocate on behalf of children and she does an extraordinarily good job," Ms Harney told reporters.
"Clearly the Asbos would only be used as a last resort . . . But we have to acknowledge that very, very young children, unfortunately as young as 10, 11 years of age, are doing very serious things in some communities. What we're talking about here are very exceptional children. We're not talking about the typical child."
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell had "substantially modified" his proposals, based on what had happened in the UK and elsewhere, she said.
Criticising the planned introduction of Asbos on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme yesterday, Ms Logan said the country has a "good piece of legislation" in the Children's Act, 2001. This should be used "rather than introducing a new piece of legislation that basically delivers a fairly punitive approach to behaviour that is unacceptable".
"It's a social sanction. But essentially the problem is that if you break a civil order, if you break an Asbo then you can end up with a criminal record," she said. "The problem is that you're bringing children who are not criminals closer to the criminal justice system."
Separately, it has emerged that the Criminal Justice Bill has been criticised by the Human Rights Commission for undermining the Children's Act. In its observations the IHRC said the 2001 Children's Act represented a significant shift in bringing Irish law into line with international human rights standards. However, some of the proposals in the Criminal Justice (Youth) Bill of 2004 diminish these positive changes.
The commission is also critical of two aspects of the proposed Asbos. One concerns the proposed removal of the reporting ban on identifying children before the courts, where this is deemed necessary to ensure the order was complied with.
It also warned that, while Asbos may be intended as a last resort, "there are precedents from other aspects of policing practice whereby measures intended to be used minimally acquire an expanded use over time".
The proposal not to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 for very serious crimes, such as rape and murder, and to try children accused of these crimes in the Central Criminal Court rather than the Children's Court should be reconsidered, it said. The proposal to transfer ministerial responsibility for children detention schools from the Minister for Education to the Minister for Justice should be dropped, it said.