TD says her children ‘abused’ over her water comments

A TD claims her children have been subjected to “vile” online abuse after she criticised people who refused to pay water charges but spent money on “beer and smokes” instead.

Dublin Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne says she has reported the cyberbullying to “the proper authorities” as she stood over her controversial comments.

The remarks came as TDs continued to debate new legislation which would impose penalties on non-payers.

The Civil Debt (Procedures) Bill makes provisions for court order deductions from social welfare benefits, and attachments on PAYE workers on debts between €500 and €4,000.

Several Opposition TDs condemned Ms Byrne’s comments when the Dáil debated the Bill last Friday.

“I see people going into the supermarkets and weekends and stacking their trolleys with beer and everything else and water and there’s no need for it,” she said, before adding that she witnessed people queueing in shops “buying 60 or 80 smokes at €10 a package”.

However, Ms Byrne has defended her comments, saying they had been misrepresented, and her children had been subjected to a “tide of online abuse” as a result.

“I was not attacking lone parents or those on social welfare as some people have claimed, I was calling out those who simply refuse to pay their bills when they use a service they need and can afford to pay for.

“What’s disturbed me about of all this is that people have taken my comments out of context and use them to attack me and my children,” Ms Byrne told RTÉ. “I’m a public representative, so I’m use to this kind of abuse but my family, my children, have done nothing to deserve to be targeted as they have.”

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said government moves to take money from social welfare payments showed the success of the anti-water charge campaign.

Mr Boyd Barrett said the new laws showed the “fear and defeat” felt by the Government in the face of the popularity and mobilisation of the anti-charge campaign.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said Labour should be “ashamed of itself” for bringing in the measures after cutting benefits for lone parents. Equalities Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin defended the legislation, saying it did not just apply to people who refused to pay water charges, but would be used against a range of debtors.

Mr Ó Ríordáin said that courts would not allow a person’s income to go below a certain point, when imposing attachment orders.

ICTU president John Douglas praised the anti-water charge movement as the biggest mass social mobilisation in the history of the State.