Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome the fact the Taoiseach has asked the Russian ambassador to expel a number of officials from this country. Sadly, it is only four. We are not following the example of other countries across Europe. That leaves somewhere in the region of 28 or 29 still here. Why we need that many in this country I do not know.

It is not unknown that I am pretty active on social media. This weekend somebody decided to attack, using my wife's name and my children's names. That, to me, is totally unacceptable. I contacted Twitter and told them what had happened. Twitter came back to me and told me no rule was broken. I am used to people attacking me on a regular basis because I am a former member of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Rangers. I served with more than 1,000 Irishmen. They were all proud Irishmen - Catholic, Protestant from North, South, east and west. All of us were proud of what we did. I will never be anything but proud of it. The day I got elected to this House the first people to welcome me were from Sinn Féin. Deputy McDonald was asked how she felt about a former Brit being elected by members of Sinn Féin and she said the world had moved on, which it has. Every day of the week somebody has a go at the fact that I am a former Brit. Here we are in this House. I am a former Brit. I served in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Irish Rangers and I am damn proud of it. I was a bloody good soldier when I was in it, but I will not stand over the likes of Twitter allowing my family to be used as a weapon to try to beat me. My wife and my children are private citizens. They never ever come into the public domain. They never speak publicly on anything, and nobody has the right to use their names. It is time that we curtailed these social media platforms with respect to being able to identify who it is that is speaking. My colleague, Senator Ward, mentioned this only the other day. I have no difficulty with somebody having a pseudonym, but I must be able to identify who they are, where they are and what they are about. I deeply resent the fact that this clown decided to use my family. People can attack me any day they want. They can meet me outside the gate and talk to me if they want, but they must never use my family.