James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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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 The Bill will introduce new definitions into the Acts, including updating outdated language by substituting "vulnerable person" for "mentally impaired" person.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.

Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Fianna Fáil welcomes the Bill to strengthen the monitoring and management of sex offenders. The Bill includes a number of amendments to the sex offenders register notification requirements. It also provides for electronic tagging and a prohibition on convicted sex offenders engaging in certain jobs. While such bans on working with children and vulnerable groups have been made by the courts in the past the Bill will provide an explicit power of prohibition and this is very welcome.

This important legislation will address the concerns of communities that have been raised multiple times throughout the country about the ongoing management of convicted sex offenders in our communities. It will introduce stricter notification requirements on offenders and will also allow for electronic monitoring in certain circumstances. It will also explicitly prohibit convicted sex offenders from working directly with children or vulnerable groups. The Bill fulfils commitments in Justice Plan 2021 and the programme for Government to update the Sex Offenders Act and to ensure that convicted sex offenders are effectively managed and monitored. The publication of the Bill is an action in the second national strategy for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

Some of the key features of the Bill include a change to the register notification requirements for sex offenders. It will specifically provide for the courts to prohibit a sex offender from working with children and vulnerable adults. It will provide powers to the Garda to take fingerprints, palm prints and photographs to confirm the identity of a person. It will create a legislative basis for risks posed by sex offenders to be assessed and managed by teams involving probation officers, gardaí and Tusla. This cross-agency co-operation is very important. It will allow the Garda to disclose information relating to persons on the sex offender register in extenuating circumstances, for example, where there is a serious threat to public safety. I note the comments of the Minister of State on information not being made publicly available. It is very welcome that in certain circumstances the Garda can make a decision to provide information to relevant persons where it is deemed necessary for their safety. This is a very important development and I very much welcome it. The Bill will allow the Garda to apply for the discharge and variation of a sex offender order. It will also allow for electronic monitoring of sex offenders to assist in ensuring they are being compliant with their post-release supervision orders.

It is very important to show that agencies are working together on the monitoring of those who have been released. The significance of this issue is borne out in the figures. We know that at present 1,700 persons are subject to reporting requirements under the Sex Offenders Act. We also know that 319 of these offenders are being supervised by the Probation Service in the community and 192 are on post-release supervision by the Probation Service. The Garda is carrying out a significant body of work with the Probation Service and Tusla, all in the interests of public safety. It is important for the public to know that this level of work and monitoring is ongoing by these agencies and the public is being kept safe.I welcome that the Bill places the current sex offenders risk and assessment management monitoring process for high-risk offenders on a statutory footing. That is very important and shows parliamentary oversight by the Oireachtas of that process.

It is really important that the Bill provides power to the Garda to disclose information about a sex offender's previous convictions to a member or members of the public where the offender poses a risk of causing harm. That is really important. I am mindful today of the family of Jason Poole and the loss of his sister. I am aware that relates to a domestic violence case. It shows that if information is available at an earlier point, we may be able to save lives and protect people. It is important that the Garda is able to have the discretion and flexibility to be able to give that information where it deems it necessary. I know at times people have called for the information to be made publicly available more frequently. I can understand the logic for not doing that and that we would potentially drive those sex offenders underground which would be more of a risk to the public. The logic behind that decision is sound and worthy.

I acknowledge the Minister of State's comments about the stalking legislation that is progressing through the Dáil. Last week, I met the Minister, Deputy Harris, to find out the status of the Bill. The Minister of State will be aware that the legislation began in this House with my own Private Members' Bill. Eve McDowell and Una Ring, who helped me prepare the Bill, and I met the Minister, Deputy Harris, last week. It was great to hear that working with the Minister of State and the Department of Justice, the Bill should pass all Stages in the Dáil by next month. I hope to be able to schedule that debate in this House during April and get that legislation passed before the summer recess - probably even earlier than that, which is really positive.

Last week I spoke to the Minister, Deputy Harris, about sentencing. I am conscious of the separation of powers and I am limited in what I can say on these issues. There is certainly a growing unease among the public about the apparent lenient sentences being handed down in some cases, predominantly domestic and sexual violence cases, most often perpetrated by men against women. I am aware many hundreds of cases pass through the system. In some recent cases suspended sentences were handed down for crimes that I would regard as very serious. One could suggest, and certainly some members of the public have suggested quite strongly, that custodial sentences would have been far more appropriate in certain circumstances. It is something to be mindful of.

I am aware that 15 years ago or more, work had begun in establishing a sentencing database to try to give us a better picture of the types of sentences being handed down for certain crimes so that we can establish once and for all if there is a pattern. Are certain members of the Judiciary outliers? Maybe they are not. Maybe it is the norm. Maybe that is the standard. We just do not know because we do not have the hard evidence and data to back it up. It will make it difficult for the Minister of State, the Department and other policymakers to make meaningful change if we do not have a true picture. I urge the Minister of State to work within his Department to get that sentencing database back up and running so we can try to establish a truer picture of the types of sentences being handed down for different offences. We should have that information broken down by gender, types of offences, length of sentence and type of crime committed. This will be a longer term project perhaps over the next ten years to establish a better picture of what is going on.

Some work needs to be undertaken on continuing professional development with training being offered to members of the Judiciary when hearing very sensitive cases involving sexual crimes and violence against women. They are of a particularly sensitive nature. There are unique aspects to those types of cases which do not present in other types of cases. Specialised education and training would certainly be welcome and I am sure members would appreciate that offering. Perhaps that can be looked at in tandem with other initiatives being taken by the Department to try to ensure that we strike the right balance with the sentence being handed down, ensuring that justice is not only being done, but is seen to be done.That has been a challenge in more recent times. I commend this legislation and thank the Minister of State for his work in this space.

Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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I congratulate the Minister of State on the passage of this Bill through the Dáil and its progress to the Seanad. It is good legislation and we give our full support to it.

The sex offenders register can often be misinterpreted by the public. People imagine it should be publicly available without understanding that while it ensures the Garda has information about who is living in certain areas, where they are and how to monitor them, there is also a rehabilitative element to it. Scholarly articles look at recidivism rates and, to be fair, sexual offences do not have the highest recidivism rates; drugs offences and other areas do. According to different scholarly articles I have looked at, after three years 5% of sexual offenders will have reoffended and after 15 years, 24% will have. The corollary of that is that after three years 95% have not reoffended and after 15 years, 76% have not reoffended. That is to put a balance on it. It is important that we have a register and one of the most significant parts of this is that the Garda now has discretion to inform people when necessary. We have seen cases in which that was not possible. Unfortunately it is too late to hear that someone had a history of offences of a particular nature after a crime has been perpetrated, especially of the serious nature we have seen in recent years.

I find the provision that those on the sex offenders register cannot work with children to be a little peculiar as an element of this Bill. It is almost a duplication. How does this enhance the law? The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 clearly states that people must be vetted before they can work with children and vulnerable adults, which should always throw up to an employer, a sports, volunteering or youth group or in other such contexts, if someone has offended. Perhaps I am answering my own question as I speak. This Bill creates the prohibition, whereas the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 creates the notification. I understand that. The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act obliges employers to have a response in policy, which is quite challenging. Therefore when a disclosure of a sexual offence comes through, we now have a clear-cut statutory provision and not a varying response. People who have been convicted of a sexual offence cannot work with children. Employers must have a response for other areas of offences in order not to fall foul of the Employment Equality Act. I would appreciate clarification that what I have worked out on my feet is correct. I pored over this on Sunday and thought the position was it is already on notice. That is an important piece.

I echo my colleagues' comments regarding a pattern in sentencing at times. While I adhere to the separation of powers, I am not sure that when some high-profile cases are reported in the media, there is confidence in the public domain that sufficient respect is given to the severity of injury that arises from sexual offences. On occasion, it is almost trivialised or appears to be trivialised in the sentences handed down. In her informal roles with the National Women's Council and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, my colleague, Ms Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, has been involved in training members of the Judiciary and other legal practitioners, including barristers and solicitors, on cross-examination in these cases and in looking at the degree of trauma involved. When it comes to sentencing, sensitivity is important. If somebody is debilitated to the extent of being in a wheelchair, that is obvious to the court. A victim standing there appearing to look whole is contradictory to the internal trauma caused and to the perhaps years of disruption of life that have occurred as a consequence.

It is not in the context of this Bill, but there is a stigma in the context of the sex offenders register. That, in and of itself, serves as a type of deterrent. In that context, the Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Bill 2023 deals with circumstances where children are coerced and groomed for criminal offences and activity. The Policing Authority's What We Heard 2022 report states that children as young as six are being engaged as drug mules and so on. I respectfully suggest that we need a register for sexual offenders and groomers in order to elevate the grooming of children for any purposes, whether for sexual offences, which are horrific, or where a child is groomed as a drug mule, then perhaps loses a package and finds themselves in debt. There is a cycle of drug debt that leads to all sorts of obligations on people to behave in particular ways and then to be sexually exploited. Establishing a register in this regard would not be a very far reach. We need a higher lifelong stigma attached to grooming children. In the context of the other Bill to which I refer, something like that needs to be put in place. Because of the misunderstanding of the sex offenders register, we need an information campaign at the end of this as to how good the legislation before us is.

Mark Wall (Labour)
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I welcome the Minister of State. This legislation is both important and welcome. The Labour Party supported it previously and will do so again today. Unfortunately, we are all too aware of the enormous damage done by sex offenders and have thankfully begun to form a better understanding of this damage recently. In recent years, ineffective legislation has begun to be replaced. This has strengthened our laws and allowed for overdue development of support for victims. It is an ongoing process, particularly around the need to develop and improve support for those victims. We need to continue the momentum of developing a legal framework to support and protect victims, but we also need to invest further in community supports for them when they need them most.

Like previous speakers here and those who contributed to the debate in the Dáil, I acknowledge the work of various rape crisis centres and thank them for the much-needed crisis support, as I did on the previous occasion on which the Minister of State was in the House. I ask Government to continue to invest in, support and develop these centres, which are an invaluable resource. Their importance continues to grow as the State moves from the shadows of unacceptable days gone by when too much went unnoticed, unsaid and unacted upon.

I acknowledge the recent Bill, which we were happy to co-sign, from my colleague from County Kildare, Senator Martin, which we hope, as the Minister of State said, will encourage more victims to come forward, rather than closing the door on domestic and sexual abuse, as has too often been the case in the past.

We are in an age of different types of abuse. Online abuse suffered by many victims destroys lives and needs to be called out an every opportunity. I thank my colleague, Deputy Howlin, for his considerable work in the context of the introduction of Coco’s Law. I acknowledge the support of the Government on that legislation and that of the Houses of the Oireachtas in passing it. As Deputy Howlin stated, it was another important brick in the wall that we must build to protect the most vulnerable in this State.After a number of clinics last night, I had the opportunity to watch "Crimecall" on RTÉ. A number of disturbing cases were detailed and it was reported that more than 70 offences under this new legislation are currently under investigation and progressing since the important legislation was introduced. Of course, the Bill we are discussing today amends the Sex Offenders Act 2001 to improve the management and monitoring of sex offenders in the community. The Minister of State detailed a number of the aspects of the Bill in his opening address and my colleagues have gone through the legislation in detail. I am not going to go through the same detail. The Labour Party will support the Bill as it makes its way through this House. I thank the Minister of State for introducing this important legislation.

Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein)
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Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur, ní hamháin roimh an Aire, ach roimh an reachtaíocht thábhachtach seo atá ós ár gcomhair agus atá á phlé againn inniu.

The Minister of State is welcome to the Chamber. This is a welcome Bill that adds to and strengthens the Sex Offenders Act 2001. It is an all-encompassing Bill that provides a protective umbrella for individuals targeted by sex offenders, and this protection is in the form of a statutory framework, namely, the sex offenders risk assessment and management programme. The provisions of the Bill will manage and monitor sex offenders in the community by enmeshing an offender in a scaffolding of laws and Garda scrutiny designed to restrict the offender's ability to prey on people, especially vulnerable people. The new legal measures, if enacted, will mean sex offenders must, within three days of leaving prison, notify the Garda of their name and address or of any change to their name and address within three days. They must also notify the Garda if they are going outside the State for more than three days, if they are returning to the State having been outside it for more than three days, if they are at an address in the State for three days and that address has not been notified to the Garda, or every 12 months if they have notified within the previous 12 months. Offenders will have to report in person to a local Garda station. For offenders who have no home address, the Garda can require a person 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 explicitly provides the court with the power to prohibit a sex offender from working with children and vulnerable adults, which is to be welcomed. It provides powers to the Garda to take fingerprints, palm prints and photographs to confirm the offender's identity. It allows the Garda, in certain extenuating circumstances, to disclose publicly information relating to persons on the sex offenders register. Sinn Féin has some concerns about that proposal and urges caution because there may be an unintended consequence of potentially identifying a victim when disclosing the identify of an offender. We support victim anonymity in cases of sex crime and we are asking the Government for more clarity around the issue. However, we will support the Bill with caution.

The Bill creates a legislative basis for the current sex offenders risk assessment management and monitoring process for high-risk offenders and sex offender orders requested by the Garda. It also allows for electronic monitoring of sex offenders. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has detailed its support for the amendments while calling for an increase in spending on Garda ICT. There has been little funding for the Garda ICT system in more than 20 years and it is unclear at this stage how the modest increase in budget 2023 is going to be spent.

There has been an inexcusable and indefensible delay of more than 20 years in updating this legislation and an equally unacceptable delay in tabling these amendments. They were first introduced in 2018 and pre-legislative scrutiny was completed in January 2021. When compared with some of our European counterparts, we are, unfortunately, lagging badly behind. In some countries, sex offenders registries and legislation have been operating since the mid-1990s. Bizarrely, anyone convicted of an offence under the Sex Offenders Act 2001 is said to be on the sex offenders register, even though no specific register yet exists.

Sinn Féin has been arguing for better support for victims of sex crimes before, during and after trial. These measures include anonymity, court representation and other general supports. We have discussed those measures at length with the Minister of State and the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris. The measures we are calling for include anonymity, court representation and other general support services which are now offered by thinly financed rape crisis centres throughout the State, which are doing their very best. I am sure the Minister of State will agree that much more financial support for these centres would significantly complement both the letter and the spirit of this Bill. I hope the Minister of State will address the issues I have raised. I support the Bill.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Senators' positive comments on this important legislation which will strengthen measures that contribute to the Government's efforts to ensure our communities are safer. This legislation forms a core part of our efforts to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence along with many other measures that we are taking legislatively, in terms of increased financial support and through strategies such as our domestic, sexual and gender-based violence strategy. My current and previous ministerial colleagues in the Department, Deputies McEntee, Humphreys and Harris, and I have been working closely with the Department and our Government colleagues and both Houses of the Oireachtas to ensure that we get this legislation right. We want to get the balance right and, most importantly, we want victims to feel confident that on coming forward, they will be supported. A lot of pragmatic and important suggestions were made by Senators from across the House and I will bring those back to the Department for further consideration. I thank Senators for their contributions.

Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail)
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Next Tuesday.