Claim that farm trespass laws are 'robust' is an insult to Offaly farming families

A STRONG attack has been launched on the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, following his assertion that Ireland's existing trespass laws are sufficiently robust by

Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan.

She said the remarks, as reported, demonstrate a government that is “radically disconnected from the realities facing rural Ireland despite all its recent guff about rural proofing legislation and government policies.”

“The Minister’s comments fly in the face of years of warnings from farmers, landowners, rural communities, farming organisations and even members of the Minister's own party,” Deputy Nolan said.

"In what world could anyone describe the current legislative approach to farm trespass as ‘robust’?

"The reality is that for years, farming families have been telling Government that the law is failing to protect them from persistent trespass, intimidation, illegal hunting, roaming gangs with dogs, damage to property and repeated incursions onto private agricultural land. Yet the Minister's response is to tell them the law is already robust. It is astonishing.”

Deputy Nolan said she had deliberately chosen a constructive approach to the issue by working through the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Advisor to draft and publish her Criminal Justice (Trespass on Land) Bill 2025.

The legislation would significantly strengthen existing protections by extending the offence beyond buildings and their curtilage to encompass all farm and agricultural land.

"I did not simply criticise the problem and walk away," Deputy Nolan said.

"I put a solution on the table."

"I drafted legislation, introduced it in the Dáil and made it clear that Government is free to adopt it, amend it, strengthen it or use it as the basis for its own proposals. I have repeatedly said that I am not concerned about who gets the political credit. I am concerned about protecting farmers and farming families."

"What makes the Minister's intervention all the more extraordinary is that concern about the weakness of the current law is no longer confined to opposition TDs like myself, or farming organisations. We now have members of the Minister's own party publicly expressing concern about the inadequacy of the existing legislative framework."

"That alone should tell him that there is a serious issue here."

Deputy Nolan said the Government's instinct appears to be to dismiss the problem rather than confront it.

"Farmers are entitled to ask why, if the law is supposedly so robust, public meetings continue to be dominated by concerns about trespass, illegal hunting, intimidation and damage to property."

"They are entitled to ask why families living in isolated rural areas still feel that the people breaking the law enjoy more protection than the people whose land is being repeatedly targeted."

"The reality is that if the existing law was fit for purpose, there would not be such widespread demand for reform."

"The Minister can continue telling farmers that everything is under control. Farmers know differently. Rural Ireland knows differently. Increasingly, members of his own party know differently."

"The Government now has a choice. It can continue pretending there is no legislative problem that needs fixing, or it can engage seriously with the practical legislative solution that is already sitting in front of it,” concluded Deputy Nolan."