Legislation preventing protests and ‘incidents of intimidation’ outside homes of politicians passed by Seanad

A private member’s Bill to prevent protests and “incidents of intimidation and harassment” outside politicians’ homes has been passed in the Seanad and will now go to the Oireachtas Justice committee for consideration.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee welcomed the passage of the Protection of Private Residences (Against Targeted Picketing) Bill introduced by Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne and seconded by his party colleague Senator Fiona O’Loughlin.

Ms McEntee said the main issue “is to make sure that we have strong laws that protect everybody here. It is not only about politicians’ homes.

“We need to send a message that any type of intimidation or any type of behaviour that would set out to cause harm or fear to an individual or his or her family cannot be tolerated.”

Mr Byrne said the Bill “would create a stand-alone offence to give the Garda the powers to address these issues”.

“We have got to say to those small fringe groups who have no interest in our democracy and who have no interest in the rule of law that if they want to protest, protest legitimately but somebody’s private home and his or her family and neighbours deserve protection.”

The Wexford Senator expressed “my solidarity with the Minister because she and her family have experienced some nastiness on the part of a small fringe minority. This is part of what this Bill intends to address.”

Ms McEntee, whose family had to be evacuated from their Co Meath home following hoax bomb threats, said “there has been a worrying evolving trend of protests outside politicians’ homes and while we all want to protect the right for people to protest peacefully, that trend has moved into a more sinister and worrying route.

“It is important that we do everything that we can to protect those who are democratically elected and have a mandate to represent their constituents and to work on behalf of this country.”

The Bill, first introduced in 2021 to deal with Covid pandemic-related demonstrations, makes it an offence for a person to organise or engage in a protest within 200m of a residence. A fine of €1,000 applies for a first conviction and €5,000 and up to 12 months imprisonment for further offences.

Mr Byrne said “we want to support peaceful protest in this country – it is a vital part of our democracy – but engaging in intimidatory and bully-boy tactics outside the private homes of individuals, not only politicians but others, is completely unacceptable.”

Ms McEntee said she had written to the Justice Committee to deal with the issue. The committee had been chaired by new Minister of State James Lawless and is currently headed by acting chair Fine Gael Senator Barry Ward.