The Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (Rcni) says it opposes a change in the age of consent and is “dismayed” the matter was discussed by Cabinet today.
Lowering the age of consent from 17 to 16 years would “compound State failures” to protect older children, the network said.
“The
age of consent is there to protect vulnerable children from coercion,
pressure and abuse. The age of consent is not designed or used to punish
teenage respectful experimentation,” executive director Fiona Neary said in a statement.
She said sexual experimentation between children is “commonly far from benign” and “can be abusive”.
A
recent Rcni report found more than a third (37 per cent) of
perpetrators of sexual violence against children were also children, she
said. “These child perpetrators were near or of the same age as their
victims,” she added.
It may “simply undermine the State and the justice system’s capacity to respond to these crimes”, she said.
“The
DPP’s office has worked very successfully, as there are relationships
between teenagers which are not abusive and are not before the courts,”
she told RTÉ Radio.
“The State has turned a blind
eye to the specific needs of the teenage child. To contemplate lowering
the age of consent with so little done or said to address their
vulnerability would be to compound this neglect,” she said.
The
Cabinet today discussed the option of lowering the age of consent to
sexual activity from 17 to 16 years of age following an Oireachtas
committee recommendation on the matter.
Ms Neary urged the Cabinet to consider its “statutory obligations” in “supporting, protecting and empowering” the older child.
Meanwhile Young Fine Gael has come out in support of lowering the age of consent.
It called for an criminal liability to be absolved where the ages of consenting individuals was less than two years apart.
“A
lower age of consent will bring our laws into line with other EU
countries and provide the legal recognition that people are having sex
at a younger age,” the organisation’s president Dale McDermott said in a
statement.
A “two year exemption” would recognise
the existence of cases among consenting younger people, he said. This
would “ensure we focus on family support services and better sex
education as a remedy to support young people” he added.
Fine
Gael opposed the move in 2006, and Taoiseach Enda Kenny expressed
reservations about the issue at that time. The question over age of
consent is part of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2013.