Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I welcome the long-awaited changes encompassed in it that were campaigned for. The Bill will allow the Sex Offenders Act 2001 to be updated in 2021 to ensure convicted sex offenders are effectively managed and monitored. SORAM will be placed on a statutory footing. There is a recognition of the need when assessing and managing risk to draw on expertise not just from An Garda Síochána and the Probation Service but to include expertise available in the HSE, Tusla, the Prison Service, and school and housing authorities to name but a few. There is a crucial need for adequate resourcing to underpin this legislation. Up-to-date IT systems will be vital, as will a clear funding stream to ensure that happens and that the systems are maintained.

Electronic monitoring has been used in the UK since the late 1990s and was extended recently to include monitoring those convicted of domestic violence. There can be benefits to electronic monitoring for sex offenders in terms of compliance with a post-supervision order, monitoring curfews and to verify an individual's location at any given time. Again, adequate training and resources are vital to ensure success and that the desired outcome is achieved.

Another area of the Bill, which is most welcome, but disgracefully late in arriving, is the proposal to explicitly provide for the court to prohibit sex offenders from working with children and vulnerable adults and engaging in certain activities that would bring them into contact with those individuals. The fact that the term of prohibition will be limited by sentencing means this is not the cure-all for children and vulnerable adults that it could be. The previous language relating to vulnerable persons was so outdated it could be described as archaic, but it is a missed opportunity. The O'Malley review observed witnesses in such trials are vulnerable by virtue of the circumstances in which they find themselves. The circumstances are not of their making, and only exist because of the choices of others. There must to be a scaffolding of supports for victims of sexual offences before, during and after the trial, including anonymity, court representation and other support services, primarily provided by the rape crisis centres network.

I agree with the point made by other speakers that the cause of rape is the rapist and the choices they make. There is a categoric need to ensure that the survivors of sexual assaults are not inadvertently subjected to further trauma by the judicial system, be that through delays or postponements, which undermine emotional resilience, often built back after significant time, therapy and support.

I am struck by the fact that we are discussing the Bill on a day when there are headlines about another suspended sentence for somebody convicted of a sexual assault. In the case in question in County Donegal, the person was given a six-year suspended sentence for burglary and four years for sexual assault. That is simply not good enough, because justice delayed is often justice denied. The victim of the sexual assault in that case has certainly had justice denied.

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