Sharp rise in threats to TDs and attacks on their offices
THERE has been a dramatic spike in the number of politicians’ homes and offices targeted by protesters in recent months.
A woman claimed Ray Butler TD struck her while reversing his car during a protest outside his home and constituency office last month.
The Meath TD denied this and said his daughter was reduced to tears after 30 protesters converged on his home.
Mayo TD Michelle Mulherin’s constituency office was firebombed in January following the controversy over calls she made to Kenya using her taxpayerfunded Dáil phone. Gardaí arrested a former Sinn Féin party member afterwards.
Following this Meath East TD Regina Doherty told how a man rang her office to say he would burn her home down with her children inside.
Also in January dozens of Irish Water application packs were set alight outside Fine Gael TD John Perry’s office. And Environment Minister Alan Kelly received a bomb threat to his office last November. Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin’s Dublin office was vandalised in the same month.