Decision on householders' Bill gets mixed response

There has been a mixed response to Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan's decision not to proceed with a Bill which would have given householders the right to use force against intruders.

The legislation, drawn up by former minister for justice Michael McDowell following the Pádraig Nally case, was published in March of this year.

Fine Gael's justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said he was disappointed by the move and insisted the law needed to be "rebalanced" to strengthen the rights of homeowners.

"I think Mr Lenihan is making a big mistake. He has suggested that he'd prefer to leave these matters to the courts to decide. I consider that a denial of responsibility. It's a matter for the Oireachtas to establish the law and for the courts to interpret it," he said.

Mr O'Keeffe drew up a Bill on behalf of Fine Gael last year to shift the balance of the law towards householders. The move was initially opposed by the Government, although Mr McDowell's Criminal Law (Defence of Life and Property) Bill was broadly similar to Fine Gael's proposed legislation.

Mr O'Keeffe added: "Mr Lenihan hasn't explained in any acceptable way why he has done this U-turn . . . Homeowners should feel secure in their own homes, in so far as the law can make them."

However, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), warmly welcomed the decision to drop what it described as a "licence to kill" for householders. Mark Kelly, director of the ICCL, said: "By raising the stakes for burglars, this Bill placed householders at even greater risk, and flaunted Ireland's international human rights obligations. As the new Minister has emphasised, Irish law already provides a perfectly adequate framework within which the courts can decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether or not the degree of force used in particular case was lawful, necessary and proportionate".

He added: "We hope that a similarly judicious approach will now be adopted as regards some of the other misguided proposals to 'rebalance' our criminal justice system mooted during the dying days of the last Dáil."

Mr Lenihan signalled in an interview with the Irish Independent this week that he had no plans to introduce the legislation. He said there was a danger in legislating too much in areas where definitions had always been supplied by the courts.