Authorities must not let public down

The latest sex offenders’ list, which requires those convicted of sexual crimes to register with their local Garda Siochána, is growing almost four times faster in this country than in Britain, relative to the population of each country.

Some 449 people are now registered here as sex offenders, but that figure includes a staggering of increase of almost 33% in just four months of this year.

This phenomenon is partly explained by the head-in-the-sand approach that Irish authorities adopted towards the sexual abuse of children over the decades. It is only recently that they have begun to face up to the problem.