Deal on sex offenders to be made with North

TÁNAISTE and Justice Minister Michael McDowell disclosed last night that a formal agreement will be signed between Ireland, Britain and Northern Ireland that will greatly improve the exchange of information about sex offenders moving from one jurisdiction to another.

Mr McDowell said that he hoped to sign a Memorandum of Understanding “within the next few weeks” on this matter with ministers from the British Home Office and from the Northern Ireland Office.

The Tánaiste was addressing a seminar entitled ‘Law and Order: Does Cooperation Exist?’ It was organised by the British Embassy and by Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH), the publishers of the Irish Examiner, and was held in the TCH headquarters in Cork City.

Senior figures from politics, policing, diplomacy, and the legal world participated in the seminar including the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Sir Hugh Orde; Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy; former Criminal Assets Bureau legal officer Barry Galvin; the Lord Mayor of Cork Michael Ahern, and the Mayor of Co Cork John O’Shea. The new British Ambassador David Reddaway; TCH chairman Alan Crosbie and Anthony Dinan, group managing director of TCH Ltd hosted the seminar.

Mr McDowell’s announcement of further planned inter-jurisdictional cooperation on sex offenders follows the recent controversy surrounding a convicted sex offender from Northern Ireland, Paul Hunter Redpath, who allegedly breached his parole and moved to Dublin.

At the time, there were claims that police forces and agencies had inadequate statutory or legal powers to track sex offenders who moved from one jurisdiction to another.

The Tánaiste said that cooperation among agencies trying to counteract organised crime existed at the highest possible levels.

However, he said high level cooperation also exists among those who wish to subvert law and order.

“Organised crime, in particular, will exploit any gaps that exist in cooperation between jurisdictions,” he said.

Welcoming Sir Hugh Orde and Commissioner Noel Conroy, Mr McDowell commended the high level of cooperation that exists between law enforcement areas on both sides of the island of Ireland.

Turning to the St Andrew’s Agreement, he said he believed it could provide a way forward.

“I believe it will put an end once and for all to the problems that have cost and blighted the lives of people on this island for so many generations.”

However, he referred to the ongoing threat posed by dissident and splinter republican groups, who he said were immune to any democratic persuasion.

“The fact that An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have had significant successes against these organisations should not blind us to the threat they represent. The people involved have shown themselves deaf to democracy and blind to reason and they can only be defeated through the continuing close cooperation of the security forces North and South,” he said.

Turning to the theme of the seminar Mr McDowell said conclusively that cooperation did indeed exist at the highest possible levels.

“The answer to the question Law and Order: Does cooperation exist? is, at least between ourselves and Northern Ireland, a resounding “yes”. That is not to suggest any level of complacency but by the same token we should recognise where real progress has been made,” he added.