Minister considering electronic monitoring of sex offenders

THE ELECTRONIC monitoring of sex offenders during the first six months of their release is being considered by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern.

The Minister told the Dáil that if it was technically and economically viable, and if constitutional considerations did not prevent a statutory scheme, he envisaged that it could operate on the basis of a court application prior to the offender's release.

"This GPS monitoring would allow any disturbing pattern to be identified at an early stage and provide objective evidence of same in the case of any Garda application to court for a sex offender order."

Mr Ahern said the proposal would form part of a major report on the management of sex offenders which would be issued for public consultation after Christmas.

Welcoming the proposal, Fine Gael spokesman Charlie Flanagan said he looked forward to following its progress. He said it was important that every effort was made to encourage prisoners to avail of treatment.

Mr Ahern said the sex offender programme had been there since 1994 and 106 offenders, an average of eight a year, had participated in it. Mr Flanagan said that was a low uptake.

Mr Ahern said it was anticipated that under the new model, which would come into place irrespective of the tagging issue, there would be three different types of treatment and about 64 prisoners per year would be dealt with.

"It behoves us all in the House to put in place the latest available treatment and monitoring."

The tagging of offenders, although not sex offenders, was being initiated in Oslo.

Mr Ahern said that on December 15th, there were 302 people in custody serving sentences for sex offences in the Republic.

Three main forms of direct therapeutic intervention for sex offenders currently operated within the prison system. Intensive group programmes had been in existence since 1994 and were currently under review, he said.

Individual counselling was available and one-to-one interventions were provided by visiting psychiatrists as a support for prisoners.