Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan has said that trespassing should become a criminal offence in order to protect Irish property owners from theft and burglary.

In response to rising rural crime rates, the opposition party wants a wholesale review of trespass law.

TD Jim O’Callaghan pointed out that trespass is dealt with under civil law and is not treated as a criminal matter.

“Fianna Fáil believes that this needs to be changed so that some serious forms of trespass can be categorised as crimes. This is necessary to deal with those types of trespass which are for the purpose of gathering information about property that can then be used to commit theft and burglary.

Impact

“That type of premeditated trespass can have a very damaging impact on farmers, landowners and businesses.”

“To deal with the scourge of rural crime, other changes are needed. Bail laws must be changed to ensure that repeat offenders cannot get bail as easily as they can at present,” O’Callaghan said.