Truck driver was ‘exercising his right to protest’

BROKE builder Joe McNamara told a Dublin court he was “exercising his constitutional right to protest” when he parked a 15-tonne cement truck at the gates of Leinster House on Wednesday.

Mr McNamara was brought before Dublin District Court yesterday morning accused of criminal damage due to his cement mixer having scraped the paint off a small section of Leinster House’s large electric gates.

Mr McNamara’s solicitor, Cahir O’Higgins, told Judge Patrick McMahon his client had been “merely exercising his constitutional right to express an opinion”.