Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is horrible to think that among the many people who travel to countries like the Philippines, Thailand and various countries in eastern Asia are Irish sex abusers. It is time that we heeded the call of Nobel Prize nominee and Columban priest, Fr. Shay Cullen. I am sure most of us are aware of him and his great work. He is calling for legislation to allow the passports of convicted sex offenders to be revoked to prevent them from perpetrating their evil activity abroad. He has pointed to cases in which people who faced charges in their home countries for sex abuse were able to travel to the Philippines, where they perpetrated further evil. He speaks with real authority, as the founder and director of Preda, a charity that works to rescue children from child abuse in the Philippines and to prevent this evil from occurring in the first place by targeting abusers and seeking to bring them to justice. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan has been working with Fr. Cullen and I believe legislation will soon be unveiled that will impose travel limitations on Irish citizens who have been convicted of a sex crime. One can debate whether the requirement would be that they were convicted of a sex crime against a child or of sex crimes generally. However, the principle is a good one and I would like to hear from the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade what position the Government will take on this legislation.

I apologise if this issue has already been raised in the House. Maybe the Leader has already responded to it, but I certainly think it is an issue we should discuss with the Minister, Deputy Coveney in the House. It is vital that we support and debate it. I do not believe there would be a constitutional obstacle here but, even if there were, it could be rectified by putting the appropriate question to the people if necessary. That seems to be increasingly common these days anyway. Earlier this year, Australia became the first country worldwide to introduce legislation of this kind. We know that Britain has official counter-terror orders that can restrict overseas travel for certain people. We are not dealing with something that is absolutely without precedent but we are dealing with the best case for restricting people's travel. The purpose is to prevent them from going abroad and using, among other things, their disproportionate wealth - although that is only a factor in this evil - to abuse children. Ireland should take a lead on this and it would be great if the Seanad took a lead on it.