Following the move in a number of states in the US, the British government has just announced the setting up of a register of convicted paedophiles, fuelling demands for a similar register here. The Department of Justice will include this question in its paper on law reform in this area, but will not be proposing it. The Rape Crisis Centre has welcomed this announcement, and has been calling for a register of convicted sex offenders for some time. The ISPCC has also been calling for such a measure for many years, though its director, Cian O Tighearnaigh, admits it is not a panacea and needs to be accompanied by other measures.

At first glance it seems attractive to those fighting child abuse. Studies show that there is a very high recidivism rate among child sex abusers, and experts agree that fixated paedophiles like Brendan Smyth are virtually incurable.

If those convicted of such offences were placed on a register, the Garda would know of their whereabouts and, if necessary, be able to alert schools or other concerned bodies if someone considered a risk was living or visiting nearby.

But creating such a register immediately poses a wide range of questions, including who should be on it, for how long, to whom it should be made available, and whether it would really contribute to reducing child abuse.

Kieran McGrath, a senior social worker who works with young sex offenders, thinks it could cause more problems than it would solve. "You can only have convicted offenders on such a register," he said. "Less than 10 per cent of sex offenders are prosecuted, and only about half of them convicted, so you would only have about 5 per cent of sex offenders on the register.

"Within that you would have very young teenagers and classic fixated paedophiles, and everything in between. This includes some people who are highly dangerous, and if not in prison pose a threat."

The suggestion at present is that such a register should include all convicted sex offenders. At the moment there are about 200 people in Irish prisons for sex offences.

These include men who have sexually assaulted adult women, men who have abused members of their own families, and men who have abused children to whom they were unrelated. They present very different psycho-social problems, and varying levels of danger to the public, and especially to children.

It is unlikely that a rapist, for example, presents a particular threat to unknown children. It is also unlikely that a man who abused members of his own family, often as part of exerting his domination over the family, will seek out other children to sexually abuse.

It is not clear who would be defined as a paedophile. If the definition covered anyone convicted of sex with an under-age child it would include a 15-year-old boy convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, or a boy of a similar age convicted of an offence against a young child. The first case is hardly paedophilia, and in the latter it is likely that, especially if treated, the boy would not offend again.

The fear evoked in every parent is that of the child-abuser who stalks children in schools and in playgrounds, and lures them away to assault them. The prospect of such a person moving into a neighbourhood would provoke great anger.

But the instances of this kind of crime are extremely rare in Ireland. A look over the many cases involving child abuse in the past year shows that in all cases the child was abused by someone known to them, either within their own family or someone in a position of authority over them.

Strict checks on people with access to children in institutions or organisations, and a wide range of measures aimed at improving the quality of family life, would be more effective ways of combating this.

There are dangers in comparing the situation here to that in Britain or the US. There have been a number of random attacks by strangers on children in both countries (although even in Britain such attacks are still extremely rare); both have much greater populations than Ireland, and therefore much greater opportunities for a paedophile to move away from the scene of his crimes.

They also both have a number of different police forces (29 in the UK), which means that there was a need for centralised computer records of people likely to present a danger to children. The Republic has one police force, which already has centralised records.

Who would have access to such register? Obviously, the Garda, who would presumably hold it. In Britain it is proposed that only in very exceptional circumstances would the identity of someone of the register be revealed to others, like school headmasters. However, the National Association of Probation has just come out against such a register.

Few people involved in the area favour its contents being made known to residents or community groups. The dangers of vigilantism are very real. "People have been stabbed and driven out of their homes when accused of sex abuse, and some of those cases have involved teenagers," said Kieran McGrath.

Making its contents known also raises the question of confidentiality. At the moment most sex offenders are not identified in court in order to protect the identity of their victims. If their names were identified on a register their victims would also become identifiable.

There is another possible danger if its contents became known: the paedophiles might use it for contacts and to help identify potential victims.

Apart from the problems raised by setting up such a register, there are questions about its effectiveness in combating child abuse.

"If you're a really clever paedophile, you won't do anything in your immediate area, you'll travel," said Kieran McGrath. "Any paedophile who is really determined can get around something like this."

THE maintaining of such a register raises civil liberties issues. It is a general principle of law that a person has discharged his debt to society on completion of his sentence. However, the Irish Council of Civil Liberties has no policy on this issue, as the rights of the offender have to be set against those of potential child victims.

Those who favour a register point to the studies which show that recidivism is very high among paedophiles, and that most rapists are not jailed for their first rape. This lends support to the view that all sex offenders continue to pose a serious risk to the public. But this is not necessarily true, according to Kieran McGrath.

"Early studies were from the prison population, because that was all that was available. We have just done a study of our adolescent sex offenders. There were 30 in the programme, and we did interviews with 22 of them. As far as we can see none of them has re-offended over five years.

"Other studies with adolescents show there are much better results from treatment than with adult offenders. The younger they are when they enter treatment the more successful they are. They are not all like Brendan Smyth, but they might become like Brendan Smyth if they are not treated. This is where we need to concentrate resources."