Crime and punishment: we must restore balance in favour of victim

IT is to be hoped that your front page lead story on June 28, headlined ‘Burglars beware: public set for greater rights’, does not presage this important issue being relegated to the status of a pre-election political football to be discarded once the votes are counted.

Across Europe, and especially in Ireland, the obsession with rights over responsibilities has led to the creation of a vandal and druggy underclass protected by unbalanced laws and legal processes in which the protection of the criminal engaged in illegal activity is valued more highly than the victim’s right to quiet enjoyment of home, life and property.

We have too much law, but not enough justice. It is long past time that the Government woke up to the alienation of ordinary decent people who are becoming sick of being burgled, mugged and offended with little or no reaction from gardaí.