Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 10 Dec 1997

Vol. 484 No. 4

Written Answers - Sex Offenders.

Seán Power

Ceist:

112 Mr. Power asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of people who received prison sentences for sexual offences for each of the years from 1992 to date in 1997; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22433/97]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The figures requested by the Deputy are not readily available and the resources necessary to extract them from records could not be justified at the present time. The Deputy may be interested in the number of persons actually committed to prison on foot of convictions for sex offences as follows:

Year	Number of Committals
1992	53
1993	74
1994	79

The figures for 1992 and 1993 were published previously in the Annual Reports on Prisons and Places of Detention for those years. The figure for 1994 is provisional and figures for 1995 to date are not yet available.

There are approximately 290 sex offenders in custody at present, approximately 255 of whom are serving sentences. The number in custody accounts for about 12 per cent of the total prisoner population. The number of persons in custody who have been convicted of sex offences has steadily increased over the past number of years.

Seán Power

Ceist:

113 Mr. Power asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the percentage of sexual offenders in prison who have availed of the sex offenders treatment programme in recent years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22434/97]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The dedicated sex offenders treatment programme, which is in operation in Arbour Hill Prison since 1994, can cater for up to ten offenders at any one time and takes about 11 months to complete. The fourth running of the programme is under way at present. Ten offenders started and nine of these continue to participate. Thirty offenders participated in previous programmes with 27 completing the treatment.

All convicted sex offenders in custody are invited to apply for participation in the sex offender treatment programme. Participation is entirely voluntary and not all applicants are deemed suitable. Where more than ten suitable offenders apply, priority is given to those nearing the end of their sentence, the others are offered a place on a subsequent programme.