Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for bringing forward the Bill. Sinn Féin will be supporting it. It is not before time that we see the 2001 Act being updated. To go 20 years without updating it is far too long. It must be noted that these amendments were originally introduced in 2018. Pre-legislative scrutiny was completed in January 2019. It has been a very slow process. I hope that will not be repeated when it comes to ensuring the measures we are talking about are properly resourced and initiated for the sake of everyone in our communities. I welcome long-awaited reforms that would help our children and more vulnerable people to feel safer. The Bill also addresses some real omissions inherent in the original Act.

This Bill contains a provision to empower the courts to prohibit an offender from working with vulnerable people and children. To be honest, I find it difficult to accept this is only being attended to 20 years on, but it is a much-needed change to a key failure of the original Act and is again long overdue. As matters stand, the offender is only required to disclose their conviction and sex offender order to an employer. The responsibility was on the Judiciary to include restrictions on access to children or vulnerable people at sentencing. While I understand the courts have ruled on cases like this in the past, I am glad to see we are now talking about an amendment that would give certainty to the powers of the courts in this regard.

The amendments also introduce a reduction from seven days to three days for those subject to a sex offender order to register a change of address with the Garda. Given the possibility these offenders could be relocating to an area in the vicinity of a location which is profoundly unsuitable, being allowed seven days to let the Garda know of a change of address was far too long. While I welcome reducing this to three days, I believe it has been said here before that gardaí should be informed immediately of even the intention to move residence.

When it comes to the monitoring of sex offenders, it is my hope, which I must indeed demand, that the resources our gardaí need to implement the much-needed changes in this Bill are provided without any need for pressure from the organisations working out there on a daily basis, or indeed from the Opposition benches in this House. This applies to the provision of electronic monitoring or tagging. This amendment is to ensure post-release compliance by offenders who are subject to a sex offender order. Again, this will only work if the ICT system in An Garda Síochána is adequately resourced. This call for resources has been made by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, which says an increase in spending on Garda ICT is needed to support the full roll-out of the amendments. It is important this sits against the backdrop of the meagre funding for Garda ICT units since they were first introduced in the late 1990s. I appreciate some of the funding has been made available in budget 2022 but any clarity on where that funding will be spent would be greatly appreciated.

To conclude, there is no excuse for sexual assault. Sometimes we see reports that imply some fault on the part of a victim of sexual violence or rape because of his or her consumption of alcohol or some other substance. This is rubbish. References of this kind, whether explicit or implied, must be rejected no matter who utters such rubbish. Nobody asks to be sexually assaulted or raped. This crime is committed by the perpetrator. The victim is not at fault. As Deputy Ward said earlier this week, the only person at fault in these circumstances is the rapist. The more this is understood, and the alternative myths done away with, the better.

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