New laws allowing gardaí to share information, including photographs, about sex offenders with members of the public became operational on Monday morning. The new powers mean gardaí can now disclose the information to school principals, staff at creches or to those involved in any events or situations involving children or vulnerable people deemed to be at possible risk.
Sex offenders will also, under the new Sex Offenders (Amendment) Act 2023, have to adhere to a stricter regime of notifying gardaí about their movements if they are listed on the sex offenders register.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee described the new laws as “tough”, adding they would “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.
The legislation also gives the Garda and Probation Service “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”.
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The act reduces from seven days to three days the period for sex offenders to notify the Garda of their name and address when they leave prison, or about any change of address.
That shorter notification requirement also applies to sex offenders informing gardaí when they travel outside the Republic for more than three days, and when they return. They must also notify the Garda when they stay at an address for three days or more that has not previously been recorded.
If their details do not change and they do not travel in a particular 12-month period, they are still required to notify gardaí of their living arrangements once each year.
The legislation also empowers the courts to explicitly prohibit convicted sex offenders from working with children or vulnerable people.
Ms McEntee has already said photographs of convicted sexual offenders would be shown in very controlled circumstances where concerns about offenders have emerged. Those images would not be available to be posted and shared on social media. Instead, they would be shown, for example, to a school principal if a sex offender was seen loitering around a school or when other concerns arose about them.
Gardaí have also been empowered by the legislation to take fingerprints, palm-prints and photographs to confirm the identity of a sex offender to avoid cases of mistaken identity when information about them is being shared.
However, while it was envisaged electronic tagging would be introduced for sexual offenders under the legislation, those provisions have not come into force. Instead, a working group has been established to “develop a draft plan to inform an approach to operationalising electronic monitoring of offenders”.
The group is chaired by the Department of Justice and includes personnel from a variety of agencies including the Garda, Courts Service, Probation Service and Irish Prison Service. The Department of Justice said the group will devise a pilot study “mapping out the operational matters for consideration which will be finalised by the end of this year”.
