Sex offenders could be electronically tagged if Fine Gael win in Irish general election later this month

Sex offenders will be electronically tagged in order to prevent re-offending as part of Fine Gael’s major crackdown on criminality. Sources say Fine Gael will also legislate to give gardai far reaching powers to obtain passwords for electronic devices of criminals. And in a further zero tolerance approach for serious offences, the party proposes to arm all gardai with facial recognition technology and the rollout nationwide of body cameras.

READ MORE - Conor McGregor tells court he was 'beyond petrified' in sex assault civil action case READ MORE - Ireland snow warning as Met Eireann says 'there are two scenarios' - and one means winter havoc Increasing garda numbers is central to the Fine Gael plan committing to recruiting 6,000 extra gardai nationwide. As part of this major recruitment drive , there will be a commitment to double the garda training allowance and introduce a new allowance to incentivise gardai to stay in the force for longer. A source said: “Since his appointment as Taoiseach, Simon Harris has applied a much stricter immigration regime.



The commitments in the FG manifesto are seen as Harris restoring Fine Gael as the law and order party.” The party also says it will ensure that domestic, sexual and gender based violence remains a number one priority for the Government and will create specialised DSGBV judges. The party also proposes to deliver 1,500 new prison spaces in the existing prison estate and re-visit opening a new prison in Thornton Hall in north Dublin.

This comes as the latest opinion poll for Galway West shows TV broadcaster Grainne Seoige - who is running for Fianna Fail - on just 7% of votes. Her running mate John Connolly is also on 7% while Fine Gael’s two candidates Sean Kyne and Hildegarde Naughton are on 10% and 13% respectively with Catherine Connolly, Independent also on 13%. Read all the latest headlines and breaking news on our homepage .

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