“In what is an otherwise ‘gender neutral’ Bill, one section makes clear that if an underage boy and girl have sexual intercourse with each other, the boy commits an offence but the girl does not.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell told reporters last night that the Government had decided on this so as not to ‘stigmatise single motherhood’. He said that without this provision, every 16- year-old who had a baby or was pregnant would be either a victim of a rape or would have committed an offence.”

What a blind, idiotic, senseless, infuriating position to take. What’s the point of criminalizing a 16-year-old-boy? How is that going to encourage him to take an active role in the fathering of his child, if the sex he has results in a child? We can’t stigmatize our sainted teenage mothers but the dirty letches that are our boys – just lock them up and throw away the key?

Has anyone seen teenagers recently? Compared the girls with the boys? Boys of fifteen or sixteen are so much less emotionally and sexually mature than girls. It’s a confusing time for everyone, adolescence, but how can this law bring clarity? I’m all for protecting children from older people abusing positions of trust and power, that’s common sense. But if it’s ok for girls to have sex with each other at any age, and they don’t get threatened with jail, what on Earth is the point of criminalizing 16-year-old boys, having sex with each other or with girls? Could someone please explain to me the benefits? This is Queen Victoria all over again – let’s ignore the lesbians, because we don’t believe the sex they have is important enough to legislate against. The prick is evil, so throw the book at anyone with a prick lucky enough to get any action under seventeen. This is Marian culture at its worst.

And all this is being decided in a day?