Noel Grealish (Galway West, Progressive Democrats)

As the Minister pointed out, removing the issue of retreat in the context of someone who commits an act of criminal trespass with the intent to commit a serious offence, as Senator Morrissey's Bill proposes, is one way of dealing with the matter. Fine Gael's Bill would simply create another problem with which we would have to deal. It is not reasonable for Fine Gael to create a situation where a trespasser, who may be a child, could be the victim of extreme violence without the right of redress against a group of people who happen to be present and gain consent from the house owner.

One cannot even give Fine Gael credit for political manoeuvring on this issue. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform said that rather than disregard Senator Morrissey's Bill, Fine Gael would have been wiser to adopt it, thereby creating some political embarrassment for the Minister——

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