Minister for justice Michael McDowell is to rush emergency legislation through the D�il this Tuesday to close off the loophole in child-protection law identified by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte.

Government sources accept there was "an oversight" in the legislation rushed through the D�il last summer that needed to be addressed. However, they insisted there was no question of adults being legally free to court or induce children for sex in the period up to the passing of Tuesday's bill.

Among the other laws on the statute book that protect children, they said, is the Child Pornography Act 1998, which prohibits the inducing or coercing of a minor for sex and which has penalties of up to 14 years in prison. This act also prohibits the distribution of any information by any means - including text messages or the internet - indicating that a child is available for sex. This effectively prohibits the passing of information between paedophile rings.

Garda� investigating possible breaches of this law also have the right to detain a suspect for up to 24 hours.

The offence of soliciting a child for sex in the Children Act 2001 - which was inadvertently repealed last summer - only allowed for cases to be tried in the district court to which no power of detention for questioning attached.

McDowell's new legislation will make the offence an indictable offence and give garda� powers of arrest. Anybody convicted of this offence will also be placed on the sex offenders' register.