Sir, – For more than three years, lawyers for the Government argued vehemently, in the context of Article 18 of the Constitution, that in legal terms the word “may” means a provision is discretionary and the word “shall” means it is mandatory.
However, it seems that when the provision in question relates to a matter that doesn’t align with the personal views of individual Ministers, “shall” simply means “no rush, whenever you get around to it”.
Section 27(1) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 states that the Minister for Justice “shall, not later than 3 years after commencement of [Part 4 of the Act], cause a report to be prepared on the operation of section 7A of the Act of 1993 and shall cause copies of the report to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas”.
Section 7A, introduced in March 2017 against the objections of sex workers, and heavily criticised since by leading global human rights and health bodies, criminalised the purchase of sex in Ireland.
Under section 27(1), the previous minister for justice Charles Flanagan was legally mandated to prepare a report on the operation of the criminalisation of the purchase of sex in Ireland, and present that report to the Dáil and Seanad. He failed to do so.
In the three and a half years since Helen McEntee took up the role of Minister, she has also failed to bring that legally mandated report to the Dáil and Seanad.
It is difficult to comprehend how a Minister for Justice, of all people, can be ignoring the law but here we are.
Perhaps the Minister might find time to act in accordance with the law if legal action were taken against her and she was then forced to argue in court that “shall” in this particular legal provision actually just means “may”. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS HENEGHAN,
East Wall,
Dublin 3.