Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy O'Callaghan, on bringing forward this Bill to address a loophole in current legislation and to ensure that no perpetrator of murder or manslaughter can financially benefit from his or her victim’s death. Despite the passage of more than three years since recommendations were made by the Law Reform Commission calling for legislative reform of the nature envisaged by the Bill, unfortunately we have not seen action to date. This Bill was introduced some 19 months ago and I believe it is high time for us to be discussing it.

The issue initially came to the fore back in 2008 following the manslaughter of a woman by her husband in Howth, County Dublin. Despite being found guilty of this serious crime, the perpetrator stood to inherit substantial amounts from his wife’s estate. This resulted in legitimate public outrage when it became apparent that under our law, the killer of a spouse could legally inherit the deceased's assets. Many spouses co-own property by way of a joint tenancy. The law at present means that when one spouse dies, even if his or her death is as a result of being killed by the other, ownership of the property automatically transfers to the surviving co-owner. Following litigation arising from this unlawful killing, the High Court recommended that the law in this area should be reviewed. The Law Reform Commission subsequently published its recommendations and proposed legislation in 2015.

Legislative reform is needed to ensure that the principles that a person should be prevented from benefitting from his or her wrongdoing, and that no cause of action should arise from one’s own wrongful act are applied, not only under succession law but also to prevent an offender benefitting in another context. This Bill seeks to achieve that aim. I welcome the fact that the Government will not oppose the Bill on Second Stage and welcome the support from Sinn Féin. Anybody who steps back and looks at this will realise there is an anomaly here that needs to be corrected.

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