Labour locates legal loophole
Issued : Thursday 1 March, 2007
Cllr. Jim McGarry Labour Party General Election Candidate has said, "the children of Ireland and their parents have every reason to be grateful to Labour Leader Pat Rabbitte's vigilance in discovering Minister McDowell's recent child law gaffe.
The Justice Minister has rushed through Emergency Legislation in his Criminal Law (sexual offences) Act in a panic response to the discovery of previous botched legislation. In so doing he deleted vitally important child protection legislation".
In the Dáil, Pat Rabbitte pointed out to the surprised McDowell that "it is no longer an offence to solicit or importune a minor for sexual purposes".
At first the Minister tried to bluff his way out of the major mistake but finally conceded that he had overlooked the issue saying "It just shows you that when you scatter your legislation across a number of statutes it is possible to make the error of the kind that was made on this occasion".
McGarry continued "the result was more emergency legislation to plug the loopholes. But this time McDowell made sure he could not be blamed if another mistake was made. He stole a Bill that the Opposition had introduced into the Dáil three years ago but had been kept in cold storage by the Government until they dusted it down to save their blushes".
Contrast the deletion of a law to protect our children with a law which they insisted in keeping. When tidying pre-1922 Laws recently, they were careful to keep on the Statute Books a Law dating from 1471 - the Parliamentary Privilege Act preventing - "The Arrest of members of the House of Lord's on their way to Parliament"!
The outgoing Government has strange priorities. They are careful to keep even the most outdated privileges for themselves while pressing the delete button on Laws to protect our children.
"Maybe Mr. McDowell has hopes of a seat in the House Of Lords if the Irish Electorate decides to dispense with his services", concluded Cllr. McGarry
Cllr 
