Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment, which seems to have identified a lacuna in the 2001 Act. We often talk in this country about the sex offenders register as though somewhere, there is an enormous ledger that can be opened and the name of a given offender found. Of course, that does not exist. What we call the sex offenders register is a set of obligations on people who have been convicted of certain offences, and they are not minor sexual offences. They are serious sexual offences and 20 of them are scheduled to the 2001 Act, including rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and many other serious sexual offences. This is not a piecemeal matter; it is serious. Indeed, the principal Act provides in section 13(1) for the provisions of that sex offenders register to apply even to people who have been convicted of those offences outside Ireland.Therefore, a foreign person who becomes resident in Ireland, having been convicted of a similar offence in another jurisdiction, can also be the subject of a sex offenders register and the obligations that come with that. They are primarily reporting obligations relating to people's whereabouts, address, etc. The notion that somebody could be convicted of such a serious offence under a court martial because he or she is a member of the Defence Forces and then, most likely, I would think, dishonourably discharged into society, without the same obligations that would apply to him or her if he or she was not part of the Defence Forces when convicted seems to me to be a gap. I understand that it may not be easy to accept it at this stage. I am quite sure that the officials have given it consideration but it seems that this is something that should have been in the 2001 Act from the word go. There is now an opportunity for us to remedy that. I hope the Minister of State will give it consideration, if not now then on Report Stage to plug that gap.