Govt asked to amend law on face coverings at protests

The Garda Commissioner has said he has asked the Government to amend the law to allow gardaí to demand protesters to remove face coverings and masks.

Drew Harris also said he was very concerned about recent attacks on politicians homes and incidents during the election campaign.

Demonstrators have turned up twice outside the Taoiseach’s home in Co Wicklow.

On 2 May a group of around a dozen masked individuals held banners with anti-immigrant slogans outside Simon Harris’s house as his wife and two children were inside.

Earlier this month, another small masked anti-immigrant group waving Irish flags and demanding border closures arrived at the Taoiseach’s home and were there a short time before gardaí directed them to leave the area.

On Wednesday, a bomb threat was made on the Taoiseach’s home.

Commissioner Harris was speaking at the graduation of over 150 new gardaí at the Garda College in Templemore.

He said he accepts that legislation to deal with so called protests and demonstrations may need to be refreshed and was not ruling out changes to the law.

He insisted however the changes must be balanced and proportionate.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said any attack on any individual’s home or their family, “irrespective of who they are, is not acceptable”.

She said they need to make sure legislation is strong enough and have to make it clear there are repercussions for this behaviour.

Separately, Minister McEntee also said she was not surprised that 68 members of the Defence Forces had been convicted or were before the courts for a number of offences including violence against women.

She described gender-based violence as “an epidemic” and pointed out that “one in four women say they’ve been raped in their lifetime”.

“It’s not a surprise that this has emerged in the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána,” Minister McEntee said. “It’s a reflection of society and more work needs to be done in the courts.”

She also said that of the 92 gardaí currently on suspension, more than one quarter had been removed from duty for alleged domestic and sexual violence offences.

Commissioner Harris said a garda review of how these crimes committed by gardaí were handled by An Garda Síochána was being finalised for the Minister for Justice.

He said more than 12 gardaí had been identified as being subject to domestic violence orders but the number was increasing.

Commissioner Harris said there were two parts to the review. The first was examining the number of gardaí subject to orders from the courts and the second was looking at the quality of the garda investigations into the crime.

Two gardaí whom they had real concerns over had, he said, since been identified, convicted and dismissed.