“A number of recent cases have once again highlighted the issue of how we deal with sexual offenders in our prison system and communities. I have made contact with victims groups here in Ireland who believe that we are not focusing our attention on rehabilitating sexual offenders. At any given time, there are approximately 300 convicted sexual offenders in our prison system. We are releasing anywhere between 100 and 150 sexual offenders annually from our prison system.

“These people are living in our communities and we have chosen not to deal with them effectively. We need to ensure that sex offenders are properly managed within the community after their release to minimise the chances that they will offend again. This is part of breaking the cycle of sexual abuse in our society.

“Groups like One in Four have run a series of successful programmes including the Phoenix Project which is aimed at managing sexual offenders within the community in order to prevent them from reoffending.

“An increasing body of research shows that simply imprisoning sexual offenders is not effective in reducing their risk of re-offending on release. Research has shown that well designed, evidence based rehabilitative approaches in prison can have the effect of reducing reoffending rates amongst sexual offenders. No one is suggesting that sexual offenders will be ‘cured’ but mandatory programmes in our prisons would be a part of a wider approach to managing sexual offenders to try and reduce the risk that they reoffend in the community.

“Sexual offenders who refuse to co-operate with mandatory rehabilitation programmes should not be considered for early release, temporary release or remission of any kind. We need to break the cycle of sexual abuse in Ireland and we need to do it now.”