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

Will the Minister clarify that she is satisfied the other provisions already in legislation will ensure that reciprocal arrangement will be in place within the common travel area and outside that more generally?

I welcome the provision in amendment No. 14 to allow a photograph of a convicted sex offender to be provided to a third party where it is necessary to identify that offender to protect either a vulnerable adult or child. I will not dwell on this, but I again highlight amendment No. 20, which is in my name. I do not think the convicted sex offender should be given notification in this regard. The most likely scenario is that of a high-risk sex offender, who has exploited young children in the past, being in a relationship in which there are young children. To contact that sex offender to tell them you will inform the person they are in a relationship with that they have such a conviction and that there is a risk to those children will only drive that individual underground. The sex offender should not be given that forewarning and I will, therefore, be pressing amendment No. 20.

Amendment No. 32, which I tabled, relates to section 13, which provides that the Commissioner shall publish or cause to be published information he or she considers appropriate in setting out the manner in which sections 14D and 14E operate, which relates to the disclosure of information. All the information available and collated under sections 14A to 14E, inclusive, should be made available. This would be important in the monitoring of the effectiveness of this legislation, ensuring it is kept current and up to date, and ensuring any weaknesses in the implementation of the legislation could be identified through making those statistics available. The legislation in relation to what data the Commissioner must publish should be broader, and I ask the Minister to accept this amendment.

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