The number of sex offenders being monitored by gardai has increased by almost a third to nearly 1,100 in the last four years.

But despite the increase in offenders under supervision, gardai say they have not encountered any breaches of sex offender orders. These are imposed on some offenders on release from prison to protect the public from serious harm.

Similarly, the Probation Service, for the same four-year period, has not recorded any breaches during post-release supervision of sex offenders, which is monitored by the service and gardai.

The fact that no offenders were found in breach of supervision requirements or orders came as a surprise to victims' groups, who claimed supervision programmes were under-resourced and understaffed.

New figures provided to the Irish Independent show that there were 1,088 registered sex offenders on October 1 -- an increase of 268 on the 2005 total of 820, and slightly up on last year's total of 1,083.

Around 600 sex offenders were released from prison in the last five years and that number will reach almost 700 by mid-2010.

There are currently 131 sex offenders under the supervision of the probation service.

But victims' groups, such as the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and One in Four, expressed surprise at the latest figures.

Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, told the Irish Independent: "It's difficult to supervise [released sex offenders] because there isn't the manpower.

By Fiach Kelly, Independent

More story at-http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gardai-keeping-watch-on-1100-sex-offenders-1530985.html

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