There is a 'palpable sense of menace' towards politicians, warns former garda boss

Ceann Comhairle Séan Ó Fearghaíl, Task Force Chair Nóirín O’Sullivan and Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann, Jerry Buttimer at the launch of the Report of the Task Force on Safe Participation in Political Life and the UCD Report on the findings of the Survey on the Abuse and Harassment of Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas and Political Staff. Picture: Maxwells

An increasingly "palpable sense of menace" is coming from a small cohort of people around political and public life, the former Garda Commissioner has said.

Noirín O'Sullivan was speaking at the launch of Task Force on Safe Participation in Political Life report and the findings of a UCD survey on the abuse and harassment of members of the Houses of the Oireachtas and their staff.

Ms O'Sullivan, who chaired the taskforce, told the event there has been an increase in threats and abuse of politicians in recent years.

"I think what we are seeing is massive exponential rise...in terms of the use of social media as a platform, the anonymity provided by the algorithms and social media and people being able to hide behind them and become keyboard warriors and the pile-ons that people are having, and so on.

"But I also think that that spillover into the real space - so when people are creating these issues, creating a frenzy on social media, and then how it spills over and manifests itself in the physical space that's something I think we all have to be aware of."

Ms O'Sullivan said she believes that the full implementation of all of the recommendations in the task force's report was "the way to go" to avoid the kind of political violence seen across Europe in the last decade.

The former Garda Commissioner said that Ireland was "following a European trend" in terms of political violence, but that she believes that "active citizenship" would help avoid the kinds of physical violence seen in the UK or across Europe.

The research found that:

• 94% of members & 72% of political staff who responded experienced abuse;
• Female members experienced more sexual and sexist abuse;
• Abuse had negative impacts for victims, their families, and political participation;
• Issues of immigration and women's rights elicited the most abuse;
• The most frequent types of abuse experienced was found to be abusive language (52%) followed by prejudicial slurs (38%); comments on physical appearance (35%); and publication of false information (34%).

Among the recommendations are that An Garda Síochána strengthen its arrangements with the Oireachtas for exchanging information on threats made against politicians, that local authorities provide psychological support services to local representatives, similar to the model of services provided through the Houses of the Oireachtas Workplace Support Programme, and it should no longer be a requirement for the home addresses of election candidates to be published and this should be optional.