Professor John Mee:

A good thing the Bill would do in the case of manslaughter is to create a discretion to give relief against this rule. As things stand, the person in England, in the example that was given, would under Irish law just lose out. However, as in England in 1982, Ireland under this Bill would be introducing a discretion that would only apply in regard to manslaughter. Let us say there was a tragic case in England where the man was mentally ill, the wife stood by him and then she was frightened and got a shotgun, which went off. Although it was technically manslaughter, she just got the Probation Act and they gave her relief against forfeiture and against losing out in that case. This Bill would achieve that. A problem with the drafting of the Bill is that, in regard to the joint tenancy, that discretion would also apply for no good reason in regard to murder. If one thinks it should apply only to manslaughter, as the English do, it should not apply to murder. That is a benefit of the Bill.

I want to restate why I think it would be a good idea to have legislation. The Oireachtas usually would not get around to something like this but, having got around to it, it would give more clarity to the families and could clear up some technical points like the three-party situation and the complexity in regard to land. It could also enact a protection for people who commit manslaughter but are not really that culpable where we would want to suspend it. However, although there would be some benefits, it is not the crisis that has been portrayed. It would be difficult for the families but it might be difficult also if it were enacted and did not have anything to strip the offender of more than their half. In New Zealand, for example, a Bill was proposed to do what is being suggested here and to strip it down to nothing. It went through the New Zealand Parliament, which decided it could not do that, and it put in what we currently have, which is the equal share. It would achieve something but it would not be clarifying some huge anomaly. It would just be making things a bit easier for the family, giving a discretion to relieve against manslaughter, and dealing with some other technical issues that are very complicated to talk about now, for example, the one about land. It would achieve something but not as much as has been portrayed perhaps in the media.