Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) (Amendment) (Work Equipment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-18 ============================================================ Anne Rabbitte (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach I welcome this debate on the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) (Amendment) (Work Equipment) Bill 2026. I, too, compliment Senator Murphy. Coming from east Galway, the Senator and I both understand the plight of tradespeople who have been victims of these offences that have been going on not just for weeks or months, but continuously. I would go one step further than Senator Murphy and extend the Bill beyond construction tools. I think of musicians and the only tools they have, be they the harp or their gear. They are impacted equally, and they drive that white van they have to reverse up at night-time to protect it. It is the theft of tools and of equipment people depend on every day. It is the farmer in the middle of calving season, the tradesperson heading to work the next morning and the musician preparing for the performance. Overnight, it is gone. When the tools are taken work stops, income stops and lives are disrupted. These are not just items. These are livelihoods as was said in the Senator's opening remarks. It is not just theft. It is the theft of a person's ability to work. We must be honest that a lot of these thefts go unreported. People just absorb the loss and replace what they can and move on. There is the fear that if they report it and put it through the insurance that the insurance goes up. People just carry the loss a lot of the way. I also acknowledge the work An Garda Síochána is doing to continue to target organised crime. There is the work on operations Thor and Táirge and the rural safety plan strengthening safety in our community. The practical measure they normally hold at the beginning of September for the property app and property marking is helping people protect what is theirs. I saw it in Portumna Garda station last September, and I saw a queue of people going in to see how they could mark their trailers and pieces of equipment. It is welcome to see. Like everything else, I have no doubt there are issues with this Bill but I support the principle of it. While I am aware the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 provides a maximum sentence of ten years' imprisonment in the case of offences of theft and handling of stolen property, where a work equipment theft involves a burglary, the maximum sentence may be up to 14 years. In the case of robbery and aggravated burglary, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment. Where my colleague is coming from is asking when enough is enough. When do we have a standardisation of a minimum sentence? I know that is probably difficult. However, when you take away somebody's income and their right to work, support their family and educate their children, that has to carry some burden and some bearing. I am not saying the Judiciary does not take this into consideration but we need to be conscious that when a crime like this comes before our court system, it has to be recognised for what it is. It is taking people's ability to work and support their family. At the end of the day, whether they are in urban or rural Ireland, as Senator Boyhan has said, and regardless of where they are located there has to be a recognition for this crime. When someone's tools are stolen it is not just the property that is taken. It is their independence, their income, their ability to work and their piece of mind. They have in most cases come inside the front gate to touch that van so they have also impacted on a person's family home. I support what has been brought forward in this Bill and in getting a Second Stage reading. I welcome the Minister’s remarks. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-18