Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 203: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of post release orders issued annually since 2002 to date in 2009; the number of these orders broken annually; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26736/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will appreciate the granting of post release supervision orders is entirely a matter for the Courts who are independent in the exercise of their functions. However, the supervision of those orders is the responsibility of the Probation Service of my Department and in that regard I can advise the Deputy that:

Section 28 of the Sex Offender Act, 2001 requires a Court to consider the inclusion of a period of post release supervision when sentencing an offender on conviction of a scheduled sexual offence under the Act.

Section 29(1) allows the Court to impose a sentence comprising of a sentence of imprisonment followed by a period after release during which the offender will be under the supervision of a probation officer. Section 29 also requires the offender to comply with any conditions of supervision specified in the sentence.

Section 33 designates non-compliance with conditions of supervision as a summary offence prosecutable in the District Court. Section 33 was amended by Section 13 (c) (4) of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008, to allow for the prosecution of such a summary offence by a probation officer. To date, no offender has been convicted under Section 33 of the Sex Offenders Act, 2001 as amended.

At any one time, there are approximately 100 convicted sex offenders on post-release supervision orders being supervised by the Probation Service in the community. Probation officers supervising these offenders work closely with the Gardaí and other partner agencies to ensure the cooperation and compliance by the offender with supervision, in the interests of community safety. In conjunction with the Gardaí and others probation officers, by and large, successfully engage with the offenders concerned and ensure their compliance with supervision through ongoing motivation and monitoring.