Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter which has been raised by Deputy Calleary and me. I ask the Government to consider the introduction of legislation to cover cases where the intent can be proven that a person who enters a property or a premises intended to use physical force against the occupant. I refer in particular to cases involving people living in isolated rural communities and small towns and villages and where scumbags arrive to their house, tie them to a chair with a rope or cable ties, beat them up in order to force them into giving information on the location in the house of a few pounds or the cash in a handbag, or the recently collected pension. There is a real fear in rural communities because of the number of robberies but also of the nature of the recent robberies. The time has come for the introduction of mandatory sentencing for those found guilty of committing an act of burglary and who intended to use physical force against the occupant of the house.

These are not just burglars or criminals, these people are some sort of sub-human beings. In some cases, they would tie an elderly person to a chair with cable-ties, and beat them up to get information on where there is money in the house. They should not be eligible for early release. They should serve the full sentence, which should be mandatory and reflect the scale of the crime they have perpetrated - not only on elderly or vulnerable persons living alone who may be intellectually or physically disabled, but also on the wider community which they have left in fear.

Now is the time to address this matter in order to reflect public anger. Such people in isolated rural areas are being targeted in a vicious fashion by some sort of sub-humans who need to be treated as such by the State.

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