Ireland

Age of Consent

Partial

Age of sexual consent is 17 years with a close-in-age exception of two years given that it is not a person in authority in an intimidating/exploitative relationship with the child.

ECO Ireland, 2018

Extraterritoriality & Extradition

Partial

Active extraterritoriality is provided for SEC crimes and trafficking of children including crimes committed by residents. Passive extraterritoriality is not provided for. There is no mention to the double criminality requirement with regards to extraterritoriality.

Extradition requires double criminality and a minimum gravity of one year of imprisonment unless between EU member states. Irish nationals cannot be extradited unless provided otherwise specifically in extradition provisions.

SEC offences are referred to as extraditable under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) framework within the EU without requiring double criminality if the act is punishable by a maximum period of at least three years of imprisonment in the requesting State.

ECO Ireland, 2018

CSAM Definition

Partial

The national legislation provides a definition which is partially in line with international standards. The definition provided does not include non-visual material, nor computer/digitally generated CSAM including realistic images of non-existing children.

ECO Ireland, 2018

Background Check Required

Not Yet Assessed

National Commitments

No

Ireland has ratified the CRC, the OPIC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention no. 182.

Ireland has not ratified the OPSC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.

ECO Ireland, 2018

Child Advocacy Centers

Not Yet Assessed

SEC Police Unit

Partial

There are several units including SEC in their mandate mainly an Online Child Sexual Exploitation Unit and a Human Trafficking Investigation and Coordination Unit. However an all-encompassing SEC-specialized unit does not yet exist. Furthermore, no information has been found on whether these units are fully functional and whether both offences under national and extra-territorial jurisdiction are able to be addressed by them.

ECO Ireland, 2018

Protection Standards Travel and Tourism

Not Yet Assessed

Public SEC Case Data

No

There are national statistics on child trafficking cases collected by the Garda Human Trafficking Investigation and Coordination Unit disaggregated by type of abuse, age and nationality. It is unclear if this case data is regularly made available and whether it includes info on offenders and on compensation sought by victims. No public case data is made available for other SEC manifestations.

ECO Ireland, 2018