Call for burglars to pay for any damage caused

Burglars should be forced to repay the cost of the damage they do whether or not they get a custodial sentence, the Dáil has heard.

Independent TD John Halligan made the call as he highlighted the 30 per cent increase in house burglaries in Waterford city in January compared to 2012.

He said the figures were comparable with those nationally, although in some cases burglaries had tripled.

The Waterford TD said he was “not here to make any direct attack on the judiciary” but he had often seen when “an out of touch judge, because of some do-gooder, will say kind words about the perpetrator and the victim is left abandoned”.

He said people were taken aback at the judiciary’s sentencing procedures.

He highlighted how often people whose homes had been broken into had seen the burglars walking around the streets the next day.

Very good cases

Mr Halligan said gardaí could prepare very good cases “but because a given judge is out of touch, no sentence is applied and the person can go back out and reoffend”.

He had read in a local paper of one person who had reoffended 25 times.

Citing figures by Eircom PhoneWatch that put the average value of goods stolen in home burglaries at €1,868, Mr Halligan called on Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore to consider legislation to “force those found guilty of burglary, regardless of whether a community service or custodial sentence is handed down, to repay the cost of repairing the damage they have done”.

He said under such legislation every District Court judge would be instructed to ensure the perpetrator, regardless of means, would make reparations which could be deducted from their wages or social welfare payments.

People’s lives

Mr Halligan said burglary was “a crime that’s gone unnoticed to the very serious crimes of damage to the person, but this is destroying people’s lives all over the country”.

He regularly encountered victims of burglaries “all of whom paint a similar picture of the terrible pain and misery caused by this violation of private space”. He said “the criminal justice system is failing victims of burglary”.

The Tánaiste described Mr Halligan’s suggestion that burglars should be obliged to make redress as very constructive. “I know that the Minister for Justice has a very strong personal view in favour of restorative forms of justice and penalties. I will bring to his attention what I think is a very constructive and worthwhile suggestion ... and I will ask him to have what you have said looked at.”

He said such reparation could never repair the sense of violation experienced by somebody whose home had been burgled.