The Law Reform Commission is appealing for submissions and comments in relation to laws surrounding consent.
It follows the commission publishing an Issues Paper, on the 'Knowledge and Belief Concerning Consent in Rape Law'.
The LRC's main role is to keep the law under review and to make proposals for reform.
The latest paper from the independent body examines a range of options in relation to consent in rape law.
It follows a request from the Attorney General to see if the current law should be retained or reformed.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
The paper looks at a number of areas, including whether the accused's belief in consent should be objectively reasonable, and/or whether the accused should be required to take reasonable steps to confirm that a person is consenting.
The LRC is looking for responses and reaction to the issues outlined in the paper.
It says proposals will influence the future of the legislation.
Tom O'Malley of the Law Reform Commission has said they have set out a number of options for the reform of consent laws "that may be worthy of consideration".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland he said the offence of gross negligence rape is one option that they have discussed.
He said they were asked by the Attorney General to undertake this review to question whether Irish law may be changed.
He said they have also raised the possibility of "reasonable belief" being added into law.
"In other countries they have changed the law to provide that it isn't sufficient for the person to have an honest belief, which could be quite legitimate, but at the same time it might be entirely unreasonable in the circumstances. And to insist that the person's belief is reasonable as well as honest."
Mr O'Malley said in practice it probably would not make a huge difference "in the sense that countries that already have such a law wouldn't have any higher conviction rate" than we have here.
He said they are inviting members of the public to respond to the options outlined by the Law Reform.
Details are available on the commission's website, lawreform.ie. Contributors are requested to make their submissions by 20 October.
The Chief Executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has said the current law relating to knowledge or belief on consent should not be retained.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Miriam, Noeline Blackwell said victims are discouraged going in to the justice system when they know the defendant has to show they had "a bizarre set of beliefs and then they will walk out free".
She said rape it is one of the easiest crimes to define.
"Sex without consent is rape. The whole issue about whether a rape happened or not is whether the sex was consensual. And that is the context for what is happening here," she said.
Ms Blackwell thinks the current law regarding honest belief is of "a very old standard".
"If you have an honest belief and the jury believe that your belief is honest, no matter how bizarre that belief is, you can walk out free.
"We have long had a concern about that and in fact we raised that concern last year and I think it may have been part of the reason why Minister Fitzgerald at the time and Minister Zappone wanted the Attorney General to look at this."
She said "honest belief" is totally subjective and depends on the person.
