James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to present this Bill to the House. The Sexual Offenders Act 2001 provides the legislative basis for the monitoring of convicted sex offenders. This Bill aims to strengthen that legislation. Its objective is straightforward: to reduce the risk of sexual violence. The Bill strengthens Ireland's system for monitoring and managing sex offenders in the community. It will give An Garda Síochána and the Probation Service the tools to ensure sex offenders are managed effectively. I am sure every Member of this House shares my commitment to keeping our communities, and women and children in particular, safe from sexual violence.

We know reintegration into society is an important factor in reducing offending. This Bill strikes a balance between monitoring and restricting offenders and supporting them in their rehabilitation. The obligations placed on the offender are informed by the risk posed in individual cases. Interventions and conditions can be targeted and varied by the courts to make them as effective as possible. I will outline to the House what is proposed in the Bill.

Part 1 is a standard Part, which gives the Title and definitions used in the Bill. Part 2 outlines the amendments that are proposed to be made to the Sex Offenders Act 2001. The Bill will introduce new definitions into the Acts, including updating outdated language by substituting "vulnerable person" for "mentally impaired" person. The Bill alters the length of time an offender under 18 will be subject to notification requirements. Currently, a minor is subject to notification requirements equating to half the period applied to adults. A court will now have the discretion to determine how long the minor will be subject to the requirements, but the period will not exceed five years.

A major part of the reform to the 2001 Act are the changes to notification requirements, also known as the sex offenders register. The 2001 Act requires that those subject to the legislation notify An Garda Síochána of any change to their name or address within seven days. It also requires offenders to notify the Garda if they are outside the State or away from their home address for seven days. This Bill proposes to reduce the notification period to three days, meaning that a sex offender must notify An Garda Síochána of their name and address within three days of leaving prison, of any change to their name or address within three days, if they are going to be outside the State for more than three days, if they are returning to State having being outside it for three days, if they are at an address in the State for three days and that address has not been modified to An Garda Síochána or every 12 months if they have notified within the previous 12 months. This is a new requirement which will be imposed on sex offenders. For example, offenders who have not moved house, left their home address for a qualified period or travelled abroad will now have to notify their address to the Garda every 12 months. For offenders who have no home address, the Garda can require people to notify every third day of the place they intend to reside that night, until the Garda is satisfied a home address has been acquired.

The Bill also proposes changes to how an offender makes a notification. Currently, an offender can notify the Garda in writing. This will be changed to reporting in person, with notifying in writing only available to those who are outside the State for a longer period than intended.Provision has also been made for those who cannot report in person due to disability. Concerns were raised during the debates in the Dáil about offenders not being able to notify at their local Garda station. The Bill also allows offenders to notify at any divisional headquarters or a Garda station that has been designated by the Garda Commissioner for this purpose. By drafting the provision in this way, a sex offender who, for example, regularly resides in Cork but is in Donegal for more than three days will notify the Garda in Donegal that he or she is in the area. If an offender notifies at a different station to the one he or she would normally notify at, this information will be recorded on the PULSE system. Let me reassure Senators that those members of An Garda Síochána who need to know where an offender is will know.

Offenders coming into the State will also have their notification period reduced to three days. In addition, these offenders will have to provide the Garda with all their previous addresses since their conviction for the relevant offence. The Garda would already have this information if the offender were convicted in Ireland. The Garda will have the power to take fingerprints, palmprints and photographs of offenders in order to verify the identity of a person making a notification. These changes will bring Ireland's notification requirements in line with those in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.

The Bill will place the existing sex offender risk assessment and management multi-agency structure, known as SORAM, on a statutory basis. It provides for the establishment of assessment teams, comprising members of the Garda, the Probation Service, the HSE, Tusla, housing authorities and other relevant agencies, to assess and manage the risks posed by high-risk sex offenders. Providing a statutory basis for SORAM will ensure the sharing of information to enable the assessment and management of risk of convicted sex offenders is legally sound, compliant with the rights of offenders and limited to the information necessary while still meeting the justifiable public safety objectives.

The Bill provides the power to gardaí to disclose information about a sex offender's previous convictions to a member or members of the public where the person poses a risk of causing harm. If the Garda believes an offender poses a risk to a member of the public, the Garda can disclose information to that person. For example, the Garda might do so if an offender was convicted of offences against children and had started a relationship with a person who had children. I recognise that the disclosure of information about sex offenders is a divisive issue. Some would argue that such information should be accessible to the public. However, if information on sex offenders was widely available, it would increase the risk of sex offenders absconding and going underground. This would severely affect the ability of the Garda and the Probation Service to manage the risk posed by them. Offenders need to engage with services. The rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders into society is key in order to reduce the risk of reoffending and keep our communities safer. That is why disclosure only takes place in specific circumstances.

Currently, a convicted sex offender must inform his or her employer, or prospective employer, that he or she has been convicted of a sexual crime. This Bill will provide that a court can impose a prohibition on a convicted sex offender from working with children and vulnerable adults. Protecting children and vulnerable people is the core aim of the Bill. Non-compliance with the prohibition will be an offence punishable on indictment by imprisonment for up to five years. An Garda Síochána can apply to the court for a sex offender order to compel an offender not to do certain things. The new legislation allows the Garda to apply to the court to discharge or vary this order.

Another important element of this legislation is the introduction of electronic monitoring of sex offenders. It is proposed that a court may order the electronic monitoring of an offender who is subject to a post-release supervision order other than one which includes a condition restricting the offender's movement. There is evidence that electronic monitoring can be effective in respect of sex offenders when it is used for a short duration in tandem with other interventions.

The Bill reflects the Government's commitment to protecting the most vulnerable in our society from harm. This is only one strand of a much broader body of work that my Department is undertaking to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. In the first half of 2023 we will introduce legislation providing more protections for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and an increase in sentences for serious assaults. Between now and the summer, the Minister and I intend to enact legislation to do the following: make stalking and strangulation a stand-alone criminal offence; significantly widen the existing harassment offence; change the law to double the maximum sentence for assault from five years to ten years; and publish a major new sexual offences Bill, which will provide more protections for victims, ensure anonymity for victims in all trials for sexual offences and extend a victim's right to separate legal representation.

The way our system has historically treated victims of domestic and sexual or gendered violence has quite simply not been good enough. Victims did not feel supported and the system did not protect them from further trauma. It is not surprising that this has deterred people from coming forward.Working to improve the trial process for victims has been and will continue to be a priority for the Department. Supporting A Victim's Journey is the Department's plan that seeks to implement important reforms to support and protect vulnerable victims in sexual offence cases and ensure our criminal justice system is more victim centred. To be clear, a fear of how the system or someone in it might treat them should never hinder victims in coming forward. A number of important reforms have already been implemented. Legislation for preliminary trial hearings has been signed into law. Funding has been increased for NGOs that provide court accompaniment and related information and support services. The first cohort of staff at a new sexual offences unit in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions formally took up their roles last year. Work to advance training of all personnel who come into contact with vulnerable victims is under way. Training for intermediaries has begun at University of Limerick.

In June last year the Minister, Deputy McEntee, published the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence with a zero tolerance strategy. This is an ambitious whole-of-government five-year programme of reform from 2022 to 2026 to achieve a society that does not accept domestic, sexual or gender based violence or the attitudes that underpin it. The strategy is built on the four pillars of the Istanbul Convention. These are protection, prevention, prosecution and policy co-ordination. Specific actions are included to establish a dedicated domestic, sexual and gender-based violence entity under the remit of the Department of Justice. We are determined to see zero tolerance in Ireland towards these crimes and offences. This determination is further reflected in a significant increase in the budget 2023 allocations.

The Sex Offenders Amendment Bill 2021 contains important measures that will contribute to the Government's efforts to make our communities safer. It is a core part of our ongoing efforts to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The provisions of the Bill have been carefully designed to strike the right balance between the rights of the offender and the need to protect the community. I am confident of the support of the House in seeing it progressed and enacted this year. I thank Senators and I look forward to their contributions.