Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept that. I am suggesting that legal provision should be put in place so the Courts Service must check if someone is on the sex offenders register and then must inform the Garda that individual A has changed his or her name to individual B. There would be an obligation on the Courts Service to check if an individual is on the register and if so, the local Garda station must then be contacted and told the individual's new name. That is what I am looking for.

The difficulty arises because the way people change their names at the moment means I cannot draft an amendment. I would have attempted to draft such an amendment otherwise. I have submitted this amendment so we find a mechanism to oblige the Courts Service, as part of this process, to check with the Garda if an individual is on the sex offenders register. If the individual is on the register, the Courts Service must inform the Garda of any name change. With email and everything else, this should not be difficult to do. It would ensure that the Garda has access to this information and is not relying solely on a sex offender to provide the information. The situation now means that if the offender does not provide that information, the Garda must compile a file, submit it to the Director of Public Prosecutions and secure a conviction. The Garda has to go through a long and drawn-out process to enforce such a breach when a simple email could circumvent all of that.