Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

They are entitled to defend themselves. There is nothing contradictory about saying that any obligation to retreat should be irrelevant when one takes a stance in defence of one's self, one's family, one's property and one's home. I do not think that is some kind of neo-fascist view, I think it is a reasonable view. I do not think one should be obliged to retreat from people who are invading one's home, especially if they are doing so with criminal intent. That is why I believe Senator Morrissey's Bill is preferable to the Bill to be debated by this House today. That is a matter for later this evening, however.

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