Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A home is a person's castle. I will outline two incidents. Johnny is an elderly man. There is a straight laneway of half a mile to his house from the public road. If someone opens the gate and proceeds along the laneway, he is watching at the window. He goes into an outside shed to peep around the corner to see who has landed in his yard. He will not make himself available if he does not know the person. That is how afraid he is after his house was broken into while he was at Mass. Two brothers, Tim and Joe, were robbed recently. Now one of them sleeps while the other stays awake to watch because they are afraid that they will be robbed again. Regardless of the figures and the sentences the Minister mentioned, many of these crimes are being committed by people on bail. Someone who has a record and is caught again should not be granted bail again. There should be mandatory, not discretionary, sentencing. I am calling for mandatory sentencing where old people's lives are changed forever when someone enters their home and robs or beats them. No discretion should be allowed in how they are dealt with.

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