The Government's decision not to hold an early referendum on child protection this summer will place children at risk from sexual predators, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.
Fine Gael's spokesman on children Alan Shatter told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution that a gap in the law relating to statutory rape means that an adult who has sex with a child is able to offer a defence of "honest mistake" over a person's age.
Plans for an early referendum could have allowed for the removal of this defence through the introduction of a law of strict or absolute liability for adults who have sex with minors.
Mr Shatter yesterday criticised the decision of the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, to make a public call last week for such an early referendum on child protection to be delayed.
Ms Logan said last week that isolating this element of a wider referendum on children meant that the plans to provide greater recognition of children's rights in the Constitution could be delayed.
The Fine Gael TD said this was a "major error of judgment" and that the public would miss out on a golden opportunity to strengthen the law against child sex predators for another year.
"If a group of children is at risk, you don't say they are a minority, let's postpone it for another year. I thought last week's comments were more about political justification rather than anything to do with protecting children," Mr Shatter said. The ombudsman told the committee yesterday that she was opposed to a strict liability law on the basis that it would not meet its main aim of protecting children from hostile cross-examination in courtroom proceedings.
She said that children have to give evidence for other types of sexual crime in court, including familial abuse and rape.
Instead, she said a better option was to ensure all children coming before the courts are protected through a range of measures such as providing resources for video evidence.
In addition, she pointed out that there was a possibility that children under 18 engaged in consensual sexual relations could be prosecuted for strict liability offences.
Ms Logan also called for plans to change the Constitution to include an express statement of the rights of the child.
This would include the right to participate in matters affecting the child, the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to family or appropriate care.