Downright thuggery
Taoiseach wants attacks taken seriously ‘before unthinkable happens’
WARNING signs about the abuse of politicians must be taken seriously ‘before the unthinkable happens’, according to the Taoiseach, who condemned protests outside people’s homes as ‘downright thuggery’.
Simon Harris said ‘too often politicians have been targeted, attacked and abused’ at their homes by ‘angry mobs’.
He said: ‘Too often we have seen public figures, on all sides of the political spectrum, abused and attacked. Too often have we seen our country’s elected representatives afraid of what might happen to them or their families.’
He continued: ‘We know how this story ends. We have had too many warnings and we need to take them seriously before the unthinkable happens. Politics in recent years has become more coarse, more divisive, and more dangerous for our elected representatives.’
He said people wearing balaclavas outside the home of a
‘We know how this story ends’
politician ‘is not protest, it’s downright thuggery’.
He said Ireland should be a place where people can disagree with each other without ‘people gathering outside somebody’s home in balaclavas’.
Protesters gathered outside the home of Integration and Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman 11 days ago, while the family of Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who has two children under three years old, were evacuated from their home last week due a bomb threat.
This newspaper reported on Saturday that Ms McEntee’s husband and children had to be evacuated from their home on Wednesday night after two phone calls to the Samaritans about a bomb threat.
It has since emerged that another threat was made against Ms McEntee on Saturday night.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said gardaí do not need new laws to deal with public order incidents and that he would support gardaí enforcing those laws through measures such as the introduction of bodycams.
‘We do need to also say this: no matter how challenging situations are, the laws of the land apply in this country,’ he said. ‘It’s very important that laws are enforced and that rules are enforced without fear or favour.
‘Politicians are the servants of the people. An attack on one is more than an attack on the people who voted for them, it is an attack on every citizen.
‘The abuse we are seeing is an affront to our values and an attack on our democracy. It is designed to silence different points of view, stifle debate and strangle dialogue. It cannot be allowed take hold and it cannot be allowed succeed.
‘These attacks also intimidate future leaders from entering politics and advocating for change.
We all suffer as a result,’ the Garda Commissioner said.
The Taoiseach said the issue ‘goes beyond party politics,’ and proposed a ‘dual approach’ involving beefed-up laws to protect politicians and gardaí, and ‘better civic dialogue’.
He said: ‘We will use the full measure of the law to protect our democracy by protecting our elected representatives. We will not allow the far right or the far left to threaten or intimidate or worse. We need to stand up to the bullies, but we also need to persuade them about why they need to stand down.’
Mr Harris was speaking at an event in Co. Monaghan to mark 50 years since the death of former Fine Gael TD and senator Billy Fox. The 35-year-old was shot by the Provisional IRA in 1974.
Mr Harris said the anniversary ‘provides an opportunity to reflect on what we have seen, in terms of a very significant coarsening around political debate’.