Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the absence of Deputy Mattie McGrath and on behalf of the Rural Independent Group, I offer our sincerest sympathies to Sir David Amess's family, his constituents and the whole political system, which has been rocked by this shocking attack on democracy because that is what this is. Whether it is a lorry driver, someone working for a local authority, a taxi driver, a politician or any other person fulfilling his or her function in life, when a person dies doing his or her work it is a terrible sad thing to happen. To die so unnecessarily in this way is a shocking attack. That is why we all have to unite and use this opportunity to say enough is enough when it comes to the slippery slope we have gone down in the past number of years, with online attacks. Things have been said about women and men in politics and we seem to have grown to accept that just because you are anonymous online, you can say whatever you like about a person just because that person is a politician. That is not right and this is a time for us to stand up and show the rest of Europe we will not take that type of nonsense lying down. Politicians should stand up for themselves and say we will not take that type of abuse because we are here to serve. We want to continue to serve and keep the link with people. Clinics are so important. It is terribly important to be able to go out to meet people and sit down and listen to groups. Nobody ever wants to see that connection broken.

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