A REFERENDUM on child protection and children's rights will not be held until next year after the Cabinet agreed to give an Oireachtas committee an extra seven months to agree a wording on any constitutional amendment.
The development is likely to anger rape support groups which have been campaigning for the law against sexual predators to be strengthened after the offence of statutory rape was struck down by the courts almost two years ago.
The "C" case involved a 23-year-old man whose conviction for statutory rape of a 14-year-old was deemed unconstitutional as it did not allow a defence of "honest mistake" as to a girl's age.
The Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution was due to complete its work by the end of this month. However, a growing recognition in political circles over the complexity of the issues means it is being given until the end of November to complete its work.
The Taoiseach initially hoped last autumn that the committee would arrived at a consensus to enable a referendum on children's rights to be held on the same day as the Lisbon Treaty vote.
However, there were divided views at the committee. Fine Gael argued that a referendum on this issue could have been held in tandem with the Lisbon Treaty while leaving the more substantial amendment on the whole area of children's rights to a later date.
However, given the failure of the committee to agree on a consensus approach, the Government dropped the notion of running the referendum on the same day as the vote on the EU treaty.
The Government now hopes the committee can come up with a consensus approach on statutory rape and on all the issues involved in the area of children's rights by the end of November.
The chair of the committee, Mary O'Rourke TD, was unavailable for comment yesterday, but Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter said it was always his view that a time extension would be needed.
"These issues are much more complex than the Government envisaged when the Government published a bill on the referendum a year ago. It's now clear that the substance of the bill doesn't address many key issues which will need to be dealt with," he said.
The committee will spend the coming months listening to some of the 200 groups, such as children's organisations, religious leaders and human rights campaigners, who have made submissions to the committee.
The committee's terms of reference include: drawing up recommendations for making the rights of children more explicit; removing obstacles for the adoption of children in care; and ensuring the best interests of the child apply in court processes relating to adoption, guardianship, custody and access.
There are already signs that it could be difficult to secure all-party support on the referendum given the divisions between the Government and Opposition parties on children's rights.
There is likely to be broad agreement on measures to improve child protection, such as tougher laws for adults who have sex with children and allowing State agencies to share "soft" information about suspected paedophiles.
However, there is still division over what the age of sexual consent should be, while the debate over children's rights is likely to be even more contentious.
Senior members of the Opposition are wary that strengthening children's rights could lead to a divisive referendum, with some groups fearful that parents' rights would be undermined. However, Minister for Children Brendan Smith has insisted the legal position of parents will not be adversely affected.