TDs get briefing over personal security

Senior gardaí are giving politicians specific security advice on coping with threatening phone calls, personal security, worker risk assessments, and constituency office defences amid heightened fears they could be attacked by the public.

The formal security guidance will be given at a closed-doors meeting next Wednesday after a series of recent incidents, including a surge in hate mail and one former senator who was warned she would be shot.

In an email to all TDs and senators last week, Paul Conway, the superintendent of the Houses of the Oireachtas, said that, due to requests from some politicians, private advice would be made available over how to cope with and respond to threats.