Farm repossession was ‘like Mugabe’s Zimbabwe’

Court repossession orders are being enforced in a manner more like Mugabe’s Zimbabwe than Kenny’s Ireland, the Dáil has heard.

Fianna Fáil’s Seán Ó Fearghaíl gave a graphic account of how 30 “uniformed personnel, some of them with dogs, many of them wearing balaclavas”, arrived at a farm in Castledermot, Co Kildare last week at midnight and were there until 5am, acting on behalf of the receiver.

Mr Ó Fearghaíl, TD for Kildare South, said he totally respected the decisions of the court. “But it is more reminiscent of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe than Kenny’s Ireland that this approach is being adopted in terms of the enforcement of a court order.”

Fine Gael Kildare South TD Martin Heydon said “if our courts are just issuing orders with no description as to how the orders are to be carried out, we’re allowing receivers and private security firms to act with impunity with the full weight of a High Court order behind them”. He said it was unacceptable for people to be “terrorising communities”.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath claimed there “was a third force acting in the country”. He said he had received a call at 3am that night, adding: “This was a terrorist act, as far as I am concerned, observed by the gardaí.”

Forced to go

Mr McGrath said gardaí, including a superintendent, were present. “I am worried that the gardaí are being forced into these situations. They have told me they have to go, but the Garda superintendent failed to produce a warrant to the housewife on that night.”

He also claimed gardaí had surveillance on the property for two weeks before the repossession.

In response, the Taoiseach said “I object to Deputy Mattie McGrath’s assertion that the gardaí were involved in any way in terrorist activities.”

Mr Kenny said that "gardaí have a constitutional duty to see that the peace is observed and that is the sole function or remit of the gardaí in the case the deputy mentions".

Mr Ó Fearghaíl asked Mr Kenny if the Government proposed to bring forward any legislation “to address the appalling situation witnessed in Kildare in the past week”.

The Taoiseach told him that “obviously the courts are independent”. He said that “in another case raised here gardaí were present but strictly on the basis of ensuring peace was maintained”.

Later, Kildare South Labour TD Jack Wall said the core issue was that a community was invaded at night “and we have to seek to defend the right of the community to exist”.

Mr Wall said the Minister for Justice should review the situation so that “where court decisions are made like this it must happen between dawn and dusk”.

Mr Heydon said repossessions should not be carried out in the dead of night. “No personal landowner should be subjected to hooded men knocking around their property with dogs . . . in the name of our courts.”

Minister of State for Justice Ó Riordáin said 30 individuals dressed in dark clothing moving across a rural community in the dead of night was unacceptable.