The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is welcoming the retention of the age of consent at 17 years, as outlined in the new Sexual Offences bill.

The new laws, which were unveiled yesterday, will make it a criminal offence to purchase sex.

The bill also includes new offences for arranging or producing child pornography, it bans convicted sex offenders for life from working with children or vulnerable people - and provides new powers for monitoring convicted sex offenders after their release.

The CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, says the bill contains a number of provisions:

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald yesterday said particular attention has been paid in the new legislation to protect children from online grooming by paedophiles.

“Children are being exploited in one part of the world; it’s being shown online in another part of the world. People are accessing that, paedophile networks are accessing it, and we want to make sure that our law.

“This is a very, very difficult area to police. Our police need to be trained in cyber crime and in the use of the internet ... so this bill will be an aid in tackling that dreadful crime,” Ms Fitzgerald said.