Mr. Mark Toland:

We were also shocked by the statistic that two thirds of all victims are children. It is a crime that is under-reported. We also found that significant numbers of reports are made much later. In many cases, they are made a year or sometimes many decades later. This affects the Garda when it is trying to investigate it because it will have lost corroborating evidence and forensic evidence. The Deputy is right to acknowledge that the majority of people who abuse children in reported crimes are either within the family or people known to them such as neighbours or people in authority.

We looked at sex offender management. A good multi-agency process is in place. It has been a pilot for a long time and has not been officially launched. Agencies are coming together and dealing with some of the most difficult people to manage. There are some processes in the courts that we think need to be addressed. One of those is a pre-sanction report. Once a person is convicted and before sentencing, we think it should be mandatory for every adult to be subject to a pre-sanction report so that the Probation Service can present to the court its suggestions for the best way to monitor that offender in the future. Some of these people are very high-risk. We found that out of about 250 people who would go before the court, only about 160 would end up with a post-release supervision order.

If they do not have an order in Ireland, they will not be monitored by the SORAM process, and that is a gap that we think needs to be addressed.