Councillors 'exposed to threats and abuse' by having to make home addresses public
Councillor Deirdre Donnelly said that “the support and the political will are just not there” to better protect public representatives at local level.
Councillors are pushing for a change to the law which requires politicians to list their address publicly in elections after a spike in reported threats and alleged assaults.
A group of 100 masked men were filmed considering whether they would protest at Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis’ home on Tuesday night, after they had marched to his constituency office.
Cork South-West Social Democrat TD and former local councillor Holly Cairns spoke last week about being “terrified” when a stalker repeatedly arrived to her home.
And Dublin Independent councillor Vincent Jackson recently had approximately 40 anti-refugee protesters gather outside his house while his family were inside. Funding of up to €5,000 has been proposed for politicians who are identified as high-risk targets to improve their personal security.
But Independent councillor for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Deirdre Donnelly said that “the support and the political will are just not there” to better protect public representatives at local level.
Election candidates must list an address on election materials which is inevitably a family home if the candidate is independent and has no party headquarters to list instead, Ms Donnelly said.
This exposes candidates and their families to potential abuse and threats at their homes and should be urgently changed, she said.
Such a provision was changed in the North in 2020 after Former Labour Senator and SDLP politician Máiría Cahill took a successful case to the High Court.
Ms Cahill had been forced to withdraw her candidacy in local elections in 2019 when doing so required her to publicly disclose her address on nomination papers, despite having a restraining order to protect her from someone.
Her case forced a change in the law so that election candidates would no longer have to make their address public. Ms Donnelly believes that a similar change should be adopted in Ireland.
“All candidates in an election should not have to give their home address publicly. People can be worried about family safety if the home address is publicly available.
“My concern is that abuse and security threats will turn people off running for politics but also that it will prevent people from staying in political life. If you’re an independent councillor, you’re totally on your own. There is no support at all.”
Meanwhile, Dublin City Council is to carry out a security review of the Mansion House after the Lord Mayor, Caroline Conroy, expressed concern for her personal safety during a demonstration by anti-immigration protesters outside the building last weekend.
The Green Party councillor said she felt the need to ring gardaí last Saturday after a large group of protestors campaigning against the housing of refugees in various parts of the city moved from the Shelbourne Hotel to outside the Lord Mayor’s residence on Dawson Street.
Ms Conroy told the council’s protocol meeting on Thursday that the “hate speeches” of the demonstrators had made her feel “very uncomfortable”. The Lord Mayor said she had also called her husband and daughter, who were not at home at the time, to tell them not to come back to the Mansion House.
Councillors have requested that they be provided with a similar briefing on security that was recently provided to TDs and senators by an assistant Garda commissioner. Officials said they hoped that such a briefing could be provided early next month.
