Denis Landy (Labour)

I am not the Labour Party Whip, but I suggest to Senator Mullen that if he wants to debate the issue he raised he would have a perfect opportunity to do so if he joined the Labour Party and came to the conference.

I raise a serious issue, which I discussed with the Cathaoirleach yesterday. A convicted murderer can come out of jail, having served a term, and share in or inherit the assets of the person he murdered. A high profile case of this nature was heard in the High Court recently. The judge overseeing the case made it clear that there was no legislation to enable him to prevent the murderer from sharing the assets of the deceased, the person he had murdered. The people are outraged at this. Many people have come to me about the issue. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Justice and Equality to amend the legislation to ensure that a person convicted of murder pays, out of the assets he inherits from the person he murdered, the €90,000 per year it costs the State to keep him in prison. Any remaining money should not be given to the convicted person by way of entitlement.

It costs the State €90,000 per year to incarcerate someone who has murdered a wife or husband. The State then must watch these people coming out of jail, being handed a sum of money and laughing all the way to the bank. I want something done about this and I ask the Leader to bring to matter to the Minister for Justice and Equality to ensure that anyone who kills another person pays the price and does not benefit monetarily from it.