Ireland is set to become the first county in Europe to cancel the passports of convicted paedophiles to prevent them travelling overseas.
A draft legislation will be introduced later this month, making Ireland the first European country to take such action.
It follows the same move being made by the Australian government earlier this year.
The campaign is being spearheaded by Father Shay Cullen, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as a missionary with PREDA, a child abuse charity in the Philippines.
He said: “It is a grievous crime for anyone to travel abroad to commit child abuse. Legislation was passed in Australia, but we want other countries to follow, and Ireland to take the lead in the EU on this.
“The benefit will be very big in terms of child protection. When more countries follow the Australian lead, many more children will be safer from abusers.”
Father Cullen has been working alongside Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan. She said that a draft legislation that will impose travel limitations on Irish citizens that have been convicted of a sex crime is due in the next few weeks.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney added that the Government was “committed to combating child sex abuse in every way possible”.
Since the law was introduced in Australia, 20,000 people who are being monitored by the Australian National Child Offender Register, have been denied passports.
It is estimated that a further 2,500 new cases will be added every year in Australia.
Prior to the law being passed, as many as 800 registered child sex offenders travelled overseas from Australia last year.
Ireland is now set to become the first country in Europe to follow suit and prevent paedophiles being allowed to leave the country and re-offend elsewhere.
Irish paedophiles to have their passports seized so they can't re-offend abroad
