THE option of warning local communities about convicted pedophiles living in their localities should be considered by the Government, according to a Fine Gael TD, Ms Frances Fitzgerald.
Meanwhile, the mother of a seven year old boy in Ms Fitzgerald's Dublin constituency says she is "very distressed" at the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to appeal the leniency of a three year sentence given to the abuser.
A Fianna Fail TD, Mr Ben Briscoe, who has raised the case in the Dail, has called for the photographs of persistent paedophile offenders to be sent to all Garda stations.
The controversy concerns Bruce Thompson, who was jailed for three years by Judge Kieran O'Connor in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last month when he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four boys over an 18 year period. He had two previous convictions for indecently assaulting young boys in England.
The mother of one of the victims, a seven year old boy, told The Irish Times she had recently received a letter from the office of the DPP saying the matter of an appeal had been given the most careful and detailed consideration but that it was "felt that this matter is effectively unappealable."
The mother, who gave evidence at the trial, said she feared Thompson, who has been in custody since August 1995, would be free by Christmas "and that he will be looking for me."
The office of the DPP would not comment on the case. The option of appealing against the leniency of sentences is rarely used.
Ms Fitzgerald said she questioned whether the courts were taking offences of this kind seriously enough.
"We are going to have to look at the civil rights of victims and at the whole question of identifying these people and of monitoring more carefully where they go," she said.
Ongoing training of the judiciary on sexual crimes was also necessary, Ms Fitzgerald added.