nan

Cabinet to discuss lowering of age of consent

The Cabinet will discuss lowering the age of consent from 17 to 16 at its final meeting before Christmas this morning. It is being brought forward as part of measures dealing with child exploitation by the Justice Minister. It is understood that a memo from Minister Shatter does not give any recommendation on whether the age of consent should be lowered. Education Minister Ruairi Quinn says it is time the law caught up with society. "I would myself like to revisit the subject and re-read the the documentation in relation to it before I come to a conclusion" he said. "But I think we should align the legal status or the legal code in accordance with current social practice insofar as possible, so as to avoid creating unacceptable anomalies in judgements" he added.