New law to give parents access to information on paedophiles – Naughten

In Families by Denis Naughten

A new law which would give appropriate information to parents regarding a paedophile living in their community has been published by Denis Naughten TD.

The law “Child Sex Offenders (Information and Monitoring Bill) 2012” would allow the Gardaí to disclose information of sex offenders to the parents of children and vulnerable adults if they believe that child is at risk.

In explaining why he drafted the Child Sex Offenders (Information and Monitoring) Bill 2012, Denis Naughten said: “Garda intelligence has a meaningful role to play in protecting our children, but at present a large body of such intelligence and other important information concerning individuals sits passively on the Garda information systems. It is my hope that through the measures contained in the Bill we can put that information to work in the interests of child protection.”
The bill proposes the establishment of system which would enable parents to enquire whether persons coming into contact with their child or vulnerable adult have been convicted of a sexual offence or otherwise pose a serious danger. It provides for a similar entitlement for persons in authority in schools and clubs.

The system is modelled on Sarah’s Law which operates in the UK through the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme. Sarah’s Law is so named after 8 year old Sarah Payne who was abducted and murdered in the UK in 2000 by a sex offender. However, according to Denis Naughten there are key differences between the two schemes: “Sarah’s law allows a member of the public to ask the police for disclosure about people who have unsupervised access to children. This Bill, while taking a similar approach to Sarah’s Law, restricts the right to make requests for disclosure to parents and guardians of a child or vulnerable adult who can show reason for the request for disclosure.”

View Child Sex Offenders Bill 2012 – Explanatory Memo Here

View Child Sex Offenders (Information & Monitoring) Bill 2012 Here