Judges ‘not viewing burglary as a serious offence’

A senior Department of Justice official has said judges “don’t view burglary as a serious offence”, despite high-profile cases showing rural Ireland is facing an escalating burglary crime wave.

Department of Justice assistant secretary general Jimmy Martin said officials have a perception that courts are failing to take the matter as seriously as they should, potentially sparking a divisive row between the State and the judiciary.

Speaking at the latest Dáil’s public accounts committee meeting, the senior civil servant said despite recent coalition measures to tackle a spate of burglaries there is a belief within Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald’s department the issue is not being treated as seriously as required.

Mr Martin said “our perception is the judiciary doesn’t view burglary as a serious offence” as “most burglars are charged in the district court, so it’s a non-serious offence” and that there is a perception judges have under-played the crisis.

He said while recent burglary legislation clearly states the crime is a serious offence it is up to judges to decide their own sentences and that bail can only be refused if a defendant is a flight risk or may interfere with witnesses.

While the department’s acting secretary general Noel Waters clarified that “in no way are we criticising the judiciary I just want to be clear about that point”.

Fine Gael TD and Public Accounts Committee member John Deasy said “without pointing the finger you are saying the judiciary are not taking this as seriously as they should, and it is now coming to a head”.

The controversial claim comes amid growing concern about a rural burglary crime wave that has seen some elderly people claim they are sleeping with a weapon and CSO figures showing an 8.4% national jump in break-ins in a year.

While there are significant variations in the figures, almost half of all garda divisions recorded increases of 10% or more, with 16 of the 28 divisions in the country reporting rises, 11 decreases and one division left unchanged.

On Monday, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald launched the €5m Government plan Operation Thor crackdown on rural crime which includes plans to introduce targeted electronic tagging for repeat offenders.

Meanwhile, Irish Prison Service director general Michael Donnellan said despite a belief prisons do not have the capacity to take in more inmates, numbers have fallen from 4,400 in 2010 to 3,718, far below the 4,000-person system capacity.