Report tilts the scales of justice away from the perpetrator and back in favour of child protection, writes Carl O'Brien
When thousands gathered outside the Dáil at the beginning of the summer in protest over the statutory rape crisis, there was a sense of anger, frustration and bafflement at how the law and Government could fail children so starkly.
The Supreme Court had struck down the 1935 law on statutory rape as unconstitutional. Under this law, any man was automatically guilty of a crime if he had sex with a girl under 15.
What so outraged public opinion was the sight of a 41-year-old man, known as Mr A, walking free from court. He had admitted having sex with a 12-year-old girl after plying her with alcohol, and was jailed for three years. A legal loophole had allowed him to be freed. Were others going to walk too?
As Enda Kenny famously said in comments directed at the Government: "Thanks to your breathtaking incompetence, Mr A has walked," he fumed, "and so might Mr B, C, D, E and F."
Almost six months later the Oireachtas committee's report seeks to address this by tilting the scales of justice away from the accused and towards greater levels of child protection. The "zone of absolute protection" proposed for children under 16 leaves little room for any ambiguity as to the level of safety afforded to young people
This will be created through empowering the Oireachtas to enact laws of absolute criminal liability in respect of sexual activity with children under the age of 16; and removing the defence of mistake as to age should never be available to persons who occupy positions of authority over the child victim.
This will restore the protections that existed for children before the statutory rape law was struck down.
The enhanced protections for children from persons of authority - where the age of consent is set at 18 - go further than the previous law and greatly strengthen the child protection regime.
There is more than a whiff of political opportunism, however, over the debate on the age of consent for sexual activity among young people.
The majority of the committee, with the exception of Fine Gael, agree with the recommendation to reduce the age of consent from 17 to 16 for boys. It would restore equality to the age of consent and bring it into line with the age of consent for medical procedures.
Instead, it appears to have been transformed by Fine Gael into a lightening rod issue relating to morals and values, allowing it to claim it is more in touch with the feelings and aspirations of the majority of parents in Ireland. In reality, the issue has little to do with the core debate over child protection, as it relates to consensual sex among teens - an issue which is almost impossible to legislate against.