There are currently 1,939 convicted sex offenders living in the community in Ireland whose details are collated by An Garda Síochána.
The figure provided to Prime Time by gardaí is made up of prisoners who have left prison in the 24 years since the Sex Offenders Act was introduced, which requires detail to be kept of such prisoners after their release from jail.
The 1,939 sex offenders living in the community rises to almost 2,700 known to An Garda Síochaná when including the 733 currently serving prison sentences.
Under amendments to the Sex Offenders Act, gardaí have the power to take up-to-date photographs of any convicted sex offender, and to share information with a third party if there is a concern about a former prisoner's living or work arrangements.
Convicted sex offenders who are released into the community are subject to what are called 'notification’ requirements, which means that within three days of leaving prison they must notify gardaí of their address.
They must also give detail of any name(s) they use, and must give detail of when they leave or re-enter the country.
While the list of former prisoners subject to the ‘notification’ requirements is colloquially called the ‘sex offenders register’, it is not officially a register according to child safeguarding expert Michael Lynch.
"There’s no register, the gardaí keep a database and track the people who have been convicted," Mr Lynch said.
Mr Lynch worked as a garda for over 30 years and half of his career was spent in specialist units which monitor sex offenders. He says most sex offenders released back into society do comply with requirements to engage with gardaí.
"I think a lot of them are happy to engage. The visit from a garda or probation officer is probably the only visit they get from anybody as well if they’re living alone and haven’t been able to go home because of what they were convicted of," Mr Lynch said.
A released convicted sex offender can be prohibited by court order from working with children, and gardaí can disclose information to a third party if there is concern about a released prisoner.
"Take for example, someone who's convicted of child sexual abuse offences becomes a partner with a single parent who has young children themselves. That's a potential threat where the partner could be told. But there's a whole process to go through where the offender might be given an opportunity to let the partner know themselves as such," Mr Lynch added.
Many survivors of the crimes perpetrated by sex offenders have expressed anger at a legal process which protects the post-release identity and living arrangements of convicted sex offenders.
The rehabilitation of sex offenders and re-integration into society is acknowledged as a difficult area.
"Most people who go into prison come out of prison," Dr Margaret Fitzgerald-O’Reilly, a law lecturer at University of Limerick said.
"As a society, we need to understand that what makes people safer, and what makes society safer is working with offenders as well as victims in order to assimilate, to reintegrate and to offer whatever supports are necessary in order to improve public safety," Dr Fitzgerald-O’Reilly added.
While pointing out that recidivism amongst sex offenders released into the community is lower than other categories of prisoners, Dr Fitzgerald-O’Reilly acknowledges there are societal concerns that exist about sex offenders released from prison.
"People don't want them in their communities. So, housing becomes hugely problematic, but people have to go somewhere. There has to be somewhere, because if they're in an unstable, housing situation, that makes it much more difficult for the Gardaí to monitor where they are. And if they are considered to be high risk sex offenders, that's hugely problematic in terms of public safety," Dr Fitzgerald-O’Reilly said.
As the Government grapples with how best to monitor released sex offenders while addressing public concerns, one policy being pursued is electronic tagging as set out in the Programme for Government.
If introduced, electronic monitors would be placed on prisoners when released, but current proposals seem to indicate such monitoring would be only for six months after release.
"The reality with electronic monitoring is that for constitutional reasons as well as provision of human rights law internationally speaking, you can’t tag someone forever so it is a short-term solution, and in fact there’s been very little evidence in other jurisdictions to demonstrate any appreciable effect on crime prevention," said Dr Fitzgerald O’Reilly.
Michael Lynch says he is in two minds about the electronic tagging proposal.
"From looking at it in the act, I understand it's for a maximum period of six months. But after the six months I'm just wondering about the offender, whether they feel free to go where they want and do what they want then after that, because they're no longer tagged."
Monitoring levels vary for released sex offenders, depending on risk assessments and sentencing conditions.
Each newly-released prisoner is risk assessed, and the length of the prison sentence served will also dictate how long post-release monitoring may take place.
And not every sex offender is subject to the notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Act. If a person receives a suspended sentence where the victim was an adult, the perpetrator is not automatically required to give notice of movements after conviction.
With so many ongoing criminal investigations, the number of people subject to the Sex Offenders database or ‘register’ is perhaps likely to increase in future months and years.
A report by Barry Cummins and producer Rachel Lysaght is broadcast on the 20 February edition of Prime Time on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.
