Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I am not the line Minister, I will make sure that the Minister for Justice and Equality will respond directly to the Senator’s questions. The management of sex offenders is taken seriously and the Department undertook a wide-ranging review of the law in December 2013. On foot of this review, the Government recently approved the Minister’s proposals for the drafting of a new sexual offenders Bill. It is priority legislation and is being drafted. It will include measures to put risk assessment on a statutory footing, strengthen the current notification requirements, shorten the period for registration from seven to three days, make it easier to apply for a sex offender order and enhance the application of post-release supervision. It will be published in late March or early April. A joint Prison Service and Probation Service working group has been established to review sex offender risk and offence-related issues.