Burglars to face consecutive sentences under new legislation

Burglars who have been sentenced for multiple offences will face consecutive jail terms under new criminal legislation advanced by the Government.

The Criminal Justice (Burglary of Dwellings) Bill 2015 includes tough new measures to deal with repeat offenders and a growing incidence of serious burglaries in recent years committed by a small number of offenders.

It has become an increasing problem in rural areas, as evidenced by a recent event in Doon, Co Limerick, where a man in his 60s died of a heart attack shortly after encountering burglars fleeing his property.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald published the Bill on Monday and said it was designed to keep repeat burglars off the streets and to improve the safety of communities.

The Department highlighted headline statistics which showed that 75 per cent of burglaries were committed by 25 per cent of burglars.

In addition to consecutive sentences, it would allow courts to refuse bail for offenders who have a previous conviction for domestic burglary coupled with two or more pending charges.

“Burglary of a person’s home is a heinous and traumatic crime. A large proportion of domestic burglaries are committed by serial offenders,” Ms Fitzgerald said.

“This new Bill is targeted at those repeat burglars who have previous convictions who are charged with multiple offences of residential burglary.

“Targeting this cohort of repeat offenders has the potential to significantly reduce the number of burglaries being committed,” she added.

Specifically, the Bill will require a court which decides to impose custodial sentences for multiple burglary offences committed within a 12 month window, to impose such sentences consecutively.

The Bill repeals part of the Bail Act in an attempt to make it more difficult for repeat offenders to get bail, where recent serious convictions suggest there might be a danger they would commit further burglaries while on bail.

The legislation is the result of a review of this area of the law, which began earlier this year. The review included a high-level meeting convened by Ms Fitzgerald and attended by the Garda Commissioner, the Probation Service and the Irish Prison Service.

The main conclusion reached was that a substantial number of burglaries were being committed by a relatively small group of offenders. The Bill was designed to tackle what the the Department has described as “prolific offenders”.

No date has been given for when the Government hopes the Bill will be passed into law.

Earlier this year, Fianna Fáil published its own private members Burglary Bill 2015 which would introduce a mandatory three years in jail for criminals convicted of burglary and a minimum of seven years on the third burglary conviction.

Fianna Fáil Justice spokesmann Niall Collins said he welcomed the fact that the Government has woken up to the fact that there is a crime wave impacting many communities across the country.

He said Fianna Fáil had pointed to the dangers of leaving towns and villages in rural Ireland vulnerable to burglars by closing many Garda stations and reducing Garda visibility in rural Ireland.

“I welcome strong legislative measures and have made a number of proposals which the Government has sought to ignore.

“Fianna Fáil will examine the Minister’s proposals in detail and we will look to engage in the legislative process at committee level to ensure the law is credible and will stand up to scrutiny.

“In particular we believe our bail laws need a major overhaul and we have been pressing this issue for some time. It is very unfortunate that the Minister has sought to bring forward this legislation in the dying days of this Dáil but we will seek to co-operate with the government to see if the legislation can be passed before the election,” he said.