John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 23: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views in respect of the criminal liability of home occupiers that injure trespassers while protecting their home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5714/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Statutory protection for persons who are obliged to use force to defend themselves or their family members, other persons or property against attack are contained in sections 18 and 20 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997. The Act allows for the application of reasonable force by a person, (whether the attack occurs in the home or elsewhere), to defend themselves, others or property. A court or a jury in considering whether such force was reasonable in the circumstances must do so on the basis of the level of force the person responding to an attack considered was reasonable at that time.

The Court of Criminal Appeal has made the common law position on the question of an appropriate response to an attack in the home very clear in the judgement of DPP v Barnes [2006] IECCA 165. The judgment in that case included the following statements:

"every burglary in a dwelling house is an act of aggression.......it is quite inconsistent with the doctrine of the inviolability of the dwelling house that a householder or other lawful occupier could ever be under a lawful obligation to flee the dwelling house..... it follows from this in turn that such a person can never be in a worse position on point of law because he has decided to stand his ground in his house."

The Court stated that any intruder entering a home dwelling with criminal intent could expect to be met with a vigorous defence from the occupier.

While the common law position is as set out in the Barnes judgment and the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 already provides protection for those who may resort to self defence in the face of an attack irrespective of the location, there is no statutory legislative provision dealing with the question of attacks specifically in the context of the home dwelling or the immediate vicinity of the dwelling. The Government had approved the Heads of a Bill dealing with this aspect of the law in 2007. The Bill was not progressed at that time as the Law Reform Commission (LRC) was in the course of a detailed examination of the issue of defences generally in the criminal law. This examination is now completed and the LRC published a Report on the matter in December 2009. Since then a General Scheme of a new Bill has been prepared in my Department and has been circulated to other Departments for their observations. I expect it to be in a position to bring forward proposals for a Bill on the topic of defence and the home dwelling to Government in the coming weeks and subject to Government approval it is my intention to have this proposed Bill introduced in the Oireachtas as soon as possible.