PRESS RELEASE
Maureen O’Sullivan TD
Leinster House
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
7th March 2018
Today Deputy Maureen O’Sullivan will be introducing the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 2018 to the Dail. She has worked on this bill following meetings with Fr Shay Cullen of PREDA who works in the Philippines protecting children who have been the victims of sexual abuse.
There has been an increase in sex tourism by EU, Australian, American nationals where they are more or less free to exploit children in countries such as the Philippines. The Bill she is introducing to amend the Sex Offenders Bill 2001 will empower judges to impose travel restrictions on those convicted of child sexual abuse in Irish courts.
Deputy O’Sullivan would also like to point out that the imposing of travel limitations is entirely at the discretion of the judiciary and factors such as engagement with rehabilitation and other factors will of course be taken into account.
The aim of this legislation is to protect the vulnerable in those parts of the world where sadly there is little or no child protection. In our globalised world where travel is readily available she believes we must do all we can in Ireland to ensure that our citizens who have been convicted of child sexual abuse, should they be deemed a risk, do not have a free pass to travel to other jurisdictions to abuse children.
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