FINE GAEL will not remain part of a major Oireachtas child protection committee unless the Government commits to honouring a promise to hold a children's referendum, the party has warned.
Publishing Fine Gael's own proposals yesterday, Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter said the Cabinet has "secretly decided" to abandon the referendum, despite then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern's "solemn promise" of April 2007 to hold one.
Fine Gael, he said, had joined the Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection "in good faith" in a bid to ensure statutory rape laws were brought back, and that children's constitutional rights were improved. However, the committee, chaired by former Fianna Fáil minister Mary O'Rourke, was making "no progress even though it has been in existence for nine months", he complained.
Under Fine Gael's proposals, the age of consent would remain at 17 - an age limit that other parties are prepared to drop by a year.
Adults would not be able to argue that they were unaware of the age of a sexual partner if that person subsequently turned out to be under 15. While an adult would be able to plead they did not know a partner was aged between 15 and 17, they would have to show how they came to this conclusion. "They must establish that they had reasonable grounds for believing that the person was over-age, and that they cannot rely on dress, or demeanour for that," he said.
Under changes after the Supreme Court struck down statutory rape laws in 2006, adults just have to argue they honestly believed their partner was over-age.
The DPP would have discretion not to take cases where both individuals were of roughly equal age, as long as no coercion was involved and neither was a person in a position of authority.
Criticising Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Mr Shatter said: "There was a marked sea change in the approach of the Government since the Lisbon referendum, but it was detectable after [he] became Taoiseach . . . They simply don't have the stomach for addressing this issue. It is an abdication of political responsibility not to bring into force the type of legislation that is required," he added.
A children's rights referendum would not be a simple issue to win: "The issues lend themselves to misrepresentation." Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews has "totally misled the general public" since his appointment by suggesting there was no need for any referendum, Mr Shatter said.
Legal counsel to the committee has advised that a change to the Constitution is necessary both to restore statutory rape charges, and to improve children's rights.
"For Minister Andrews or chairman O'Rourke to suggest otherwise is baffling and wrong in the context of the clear legal advice given by counsel appointed to the committee on these issues," he said.
