Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

It provides no protection in the case of manslaughter. In the course of this debate we have seen that there are cases where the curtilage of a person's house should be taken into account. The Law Reform Commission's report made a strong case for this and highlighted a pointed difference between self-defence in general and self-defence by a person on his own property.

Consider the split-second decisions people make during an intrusion. If an intruder entered one's house and there were an altercation resulting in his death, although one did not intend to kill him, the fact that the intruder was on one's property with criminal intent should entitle one to invoke some law in one's defence. This is what we are trying to do. If one sees somebody outside one's front door breaking into one's car, for example, one should be entitled to use some form of self-defence.