Irish Sex Offenders Register

After the Sex Offender register was enacted in the UK, there was a great deal of controversy over the fact that British paedophiles were moving to Ireland (and other countries). Ireland did not have a Sex Offenders Register at that time, and crossing the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland was easily done without passport checks.

In late December 1997, TD Batt O'Keeffe warned that over 1,000 of Britain's most dangerous sex pests had failed to sign the register and that some may have already relocated to Ireland. He said: "Given the tendency of British sex offenders to come here, these latest figures should give us cause for concern.  "Because they've slipped out of sight of the British police, it means they can't notify the Gardai."  O'Keeffe said there should be closer cooperation between British police and the Gardai.

Minister for Children, Frank Fahey also advocated an Irish paedophile register.

In late 1997 at least four convicted British paedophiles  known to be in Ireland at that time including Robert Oliver, John Charles Paul, and John  Paul Keller.

In February 1999, Justice Minister John O'Donoghue finally announced plans for a sex offenders register to be set up in Ireland after getting Cabinet approval.

In July 1999 Interpol contacted the Gardai with an anonymous tip claiming missing child Ben Needham was in Ireland.  There was frustration again expressed due to the lack of a Sex Offenders register in Ireland.

In August 2000, The People reported that over a dozen British paedophiles were in Ireland and that the Gardai had said they had no idea where they were due to the lack of passport checks between Ireland and the UK. Six months previously, the Sunday People  found Welsh sex offender Norman 'Taffy' Porter-Jones living close to a primary school in Co Donegal.  He was arrested and sentenced to 18 months prison in Scotland.

In 2001 the Sex Offenders bill was still being considered in the Dail. In June 2001, The People reported that over 200 dangerous sex offenders "roaming free"  in Ireland and that their sources claimed a great many of them were from Britain or Northern Ireland.

Although Justice Minister John O'Donoghue has promised a UK-style Sex Offenders' Register for Ireland, the country has already been long seen as a key place to 'disappear'.  "Ireland has come up in many conversations between career paedophiles in Britain and we know that from talking to British police," a senior detective told us.  "Between the arrival of these fellas here and the Irish ones we know about, we're talking in the region of a couple of hundred men - and the number is rising all the time."~200 Sex monsters prowling in Ireland, Jason Johnson, 3 June 2001, People

In 2001, Ireland enacted the 2001 Sex Offenders Act