Promised laws on sex offenders not enacted

LAWS requiring sex offenders to inform the gardaí of their movements and activities have still not been introduced 15 months after they were promised.

The plans were part of the Programme for Government. The bill outlining the laws was promised before the Oireachtas summer recess, but has yet to be published.

The Labour Party said it is just one of 41 commitments on the justice issue given by the Government when it was formed 15 months ago that still have not been fulfilled.

Labour’s justice spokesman, Pat Rabbitte, said: “Very few of the commitments given on prisons, antisocial behaviour, the gardaí, drugs, organised crime, sentencing and court procedures have been implemented.”

Among the commitments still to be fulfilled are:

Making it illegal to supply or administer “date rape” drugs. The Department of Justice said this is “under consideration”.

Ensure sexual offenders are assessed before being released from prison to identify what supervision they need. The department said this is “under constant review”.

Increase Garda search powers for drug crimes and introduce random breath-testing and random searches at places where gardaí believe drug abuse is taking place. On this issue, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said: “Because of the complexity and sensitivity of the issues involved, I am unable to say at this stage what proposals will be available.”

There are also delays in plans to introduce measures to tackle gangland crime through the courts.

Mr Rabbitte, who obtained details on the progress of these commitments through Parliamentary Questions, said: “A wide range of excuses are given in the replies for the failure to act. The most frequently used is that the matter is still under consideration.

“However, in some cases it appears that no real consideration was given to the legal or constitutional implications of various commitments before they were included in the Programme for Government.

“One particular commitment promised to introduce legislation that would allow gardaí to issue ‘restriction orders’ which would be used in emergency situations to restrict named persons from travelling to or from certain places for defined periods of time. In his reply, Mr Ahern says that it ‘gives rise to highly sensitive constitutional issues which will require carefully scrutiny’,” said Mr Rabbitte.

“However, one might have thought that such careful scrutiny would have been undertaken before such a commitment was made.”