A final wording for the Government’s proposed referendum on children’s rights has been decided upon, it emerged yesterday. The wording will be published on Monday.
The wording includes a proposal to allow the Gardai, health authorities and voluntary groups to share “soft information” in the vetting of adults working with children. The information would include data regarding individuals accused of abusing children, even if that person was never convicted of an offence.
It is one of seven proposed measures to be included in the referendum, which the Government hopes to hold before the general election.
However, with only a limited amount of time available for debate, and Opposition parties expressing frustration with their lack of access to a wording, this may not be possible. Only months remain before the General Election, and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has already said he will only proceed with a referendum if there is all-party consensus on the issue.
Fine Gael’s spokesman on justice Jim O’Keeffe last night said the issues at stake were wide-ranging and complex and would need to be subject to a lengthy debate.
“When we’re changing the vary basic laws of the State you need to ensure all the proposed measures are fully debated by the Oireachtas and, more importantly, the people,” he said.
Labour and the Green Party have also expressed reservations about rushing into a referendum, while only Sinn Féin have expressed support for a referendum on the same day as the election.
Apart from the “soft information” plan, the proposed wording will also provide for the introduction of a strict liability offence for adults who have sex with young people under the age of consent. This would remove the defence of “honest mistake” available to adults and introduce a zone of absolute protection, below which it would be automatically criminal to have sex with somebody below the age of consent. The age at which this zone of protection comes into force will be left for the Oireachtas to decide. It will explicitly acknowledge “the natural and imprescriptible rights” of children. Most Constitutional experts believe that the Constitution does this implicitly already.
The new amendment will also give the courts legal authority to secure the best interests of children in any court proceedings relating to adoption, guardianship, custody or access and enable children who have been in care for a long period of time to be adopted, in the best interests of such children.
It would also enable children from marital and non-marital family units to be equally eligible for voluntary adoption.
