‘Significantly tightened” laws around managing and monitoring sex offenders are coming into force today.

The Sex Offenders (Amendment) Act 2023 includes a number of provisions aimed at making it easier to monitor sex offenders in the community.

The legislation allows a court to specifically ban a sex offender from working with children and will allow the Gardaí to disclose information on sex offenders in the community where there is a serious risk to the community.

Welcome

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Policy Manager Shirley Scott said the changes are welcome.

She said the legislation should reduce the risk posed by individuals in the community.

“Many of the offenders that would be coming back into communities will be known by the victim-survivor and may even be family members of the victim,” she said.

“So, I suppose this new legislation aims to reduce the risk of any new offences because it is monitoring those that are deemed to be at risk of such offending.”

Under the new legislation, sex offenders must inform Gardaí:

• Of their name and address within three days of leaving prison – down from seven days.
• Of any change to their name or address within three days – down from seven days.
• If they are going to be outside the State for more than three days.
• If they are returning to the State having been outside it for three days.
• If they are at an address in the State for three days and that address has not been notified to Gardaí.

The Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the new laws will help to “build stronger, safer communities and will strengthen our already robust system for monitoring sex offenders”.

“The new laws will help alleviate understandable concerns which communities can have about sex offenders and the protection of public safety and our citizens,” she said.

“For example, it introduces stricter notification requirements, and gives powers to the court to explicitly prohibit convicted sex offenders from working with children or vulnerable people.”

Safety

She said the legislation will give Gardaí the tools to “ensure sex offenders are managed effectively, striking an appropriate balance between monitoring and restricting offenders while also supporting them in their rehabilitation”.

The new legislation also allows Gardaí to take fingerprints, palm prints and photographs to confirm the identity of the person.

Where there is a serious threat to public safety, it allows for An Garda Síochána to disclose information relating to persons on the sex offender register.

Meanwhile, a working group has been established to develop a draft plan to “inform an approach to operationalising electronic monitoring of offenders”.

The group’s aim is to devise a pilot study for electronic tagging.