Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 597: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of convicted sex offenders who have breached the conditions of their post-release supervision orders for each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30406/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Whilst the granting of post release supervision orders is entirely a matter for the Courts the supervision of those orders is the responsibility of the Probation Service of my Department. 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. The Probation Service records all Court orders made requiring the supervision of offenders sentenced under the Sex Offenders Act, 2001.

The following is the breakdown of the number of sex offenders who, over the last 5 years, were subject to post release supervision by the Probation Service.

To date 17 offenders have been released from custody onto supervision this year with a further 11 expected to be released onto supervision prior to the end of 2009.

Section 33 of the 2001 Act deals with non-compliance of the 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.

I would add that in managing these cases Probation officers 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.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 601: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the costs of the proposed electronic tagging of sex offenders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30410/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I published a detailed Discussion Document on the management of convicted sex offenders last January which, inter alia, puts forward the possibility of using GPS electronic monitoring technology to monitor higher risk convicted sex offenders for the first 6 months following the completion of their prison sentences and their release back to the community. There was a consultative process following the publication of that document and I am now considering the views expressed as part of that consultative process.

At the same time I announced the establishment of a Project Board, led by the Probation Service, to examine specific possibilities as well as the implementation of electronic monitoring (EM) more generally in this jurisdiction. I received an interim report from the Project Board in June which recommended that a pilot project be initiated in order to test EM technology in this jurisdiction and assess its value for money in the management of offenders. I await the final report from the Board - which is due shortly - and which will inform the decision(s) on using EM technology here for a pilot period.

With regard to the cost, detailed costings will only become known once a tender process has been completed and evaluated for best value for the taxpayer. The Deputy can rest assured that I will balance the cost to the public purse against the added value for offender management generally and ultimately the benefits for public safety.