Information from the Sex Offenders' Register should be restricted to a need-to-know basis, Fine Gael's Mr Dan Neville TD said yesterday. The Bill providing for the register will complete its Dail passage today.
Mr Neville said he was very concerned that unless the Bill was changed before becoming law, details from the register would be released to some sections of the media and to groups that might abuse the information.
"We must learn from the experience of other jurisdictions where the uncontrolled release of such information has been entirely counter-productive to the original objectives of the register," Mr Neville said.
He wants the Minister for Justice to accept an amendment setting out how and to whom information could be released.
"The Minister must take into consideration the community riots, and in extreme circumstances the actual deaths which took place last year following the decision of the News of the World to publish names and photographs of those who were on the register in the UK."
However, a Department of Justice spokesman said the register would be kept by the gardai and releasing information would be at their discretion, in association with the welfare and probation services where appropriate. No one else, as of right, could access the register.
The register would be used for risk assessment of convicted sex offenders. "It will be down to the professional judgment of the Garda Siochana. Information would only be disclosed when there is a serious, immediate danger to someone and then only to a minimum number of people with a need to know."