Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Most people in this House have spoken on behalf of homeless people. We are all keenly aware of the terrible circumstances that some people endure who live on the streets. Whenever we meet a homeless person living in such conditions we feel shocked. Our pride is also hurt that any citizen should find it necessary to live in such conditions. Neither justifies the recent efforts to defame a member of An Garda Síochána. Members will be aware of a particular incident that involved a homeless person and a garda but this was posted on social media websites. For weeks and months many people took it to be an exact report of what happened. Subsequently, it was discovered that the report was not the complete picture because footage of what happened, which was totally different, was taken from another source. I know the Garda has been exonerated since. We must remind ourselves that behind the uniform is a human being and reflect on how he must have felt during the period when he was misrepresented and defamed in this manner. It is a warning to us all of the abuse which can take place on social media. Sometimes people are not lucky enough, as the garda was, to be exonerated by a report which was published in recent days. I urge people to be alert to those dangers in the future.

Unfortunately, the incident has done harm to the cause of homeless people. I wonder what was the agenda of the people who posted the item on social media. Was it to undermine An Garda Síochána? Was it to make a political point? Whatever it was, it did not serve the purpose of helping the homeless. I am glad that the garda has been exonerated. In future we should all be that little bit more alert when issues like this surface and give it time to have the matter examined. If we had all rushed to comment when the case first surfaced, then we would have added to the damage inflicted.