Emergency legislation is to be rushed through the Dáil next week to deal with the legal anomaly affected the law preventing the solicitation of children for sexual purposes.
The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill 2007 is to have all stages passed within two hours, beginning at 9.30pm on Tuesday evening.
It is then due to pass all stages in the Seanad on Wednesday between 11.20am and 1.30pm.
Yesterday, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte identified what he claimed was a loophole in the law which meant that there was effectively no law against soliciting or importuning children for sex.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Mr McDowell said the legislation would deal with just the one issue involved, as he did not want to deal with broader issues using emergency legislation.
He said he was not, generally speaking, happy to rush legislation through the Dáil without taking greater time to consider it.
But he said it was the Opposition who last summer had asked him to rush through the legislation to close the loophole which had emerged at that time.
