Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome our friends from Malawi. I hope they enjoy their time here.

A new practice has grown in recent months, or perhaps the last year or so, where we are now lobbied with blanket emails. If someone sends such an email to me I will dump it without reading it. If people want me to do something they should send an email to Gerard Craughwell, Craughwell, or Mr. Craughwell or whatever the hell they want, but they should not send me one of those blanket, standard letters that are passed on.

The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill is about to come before this House. All of us have received emails on it. Those emails have found their way into social media. There is a level of intimidation and disgusting comment coming from those who oppose the Bill, with which I have serious difficulty myself. They are trying to intimidate me. A member of my staff replies to the emails and thanks people for them. One guy felt it within his power to publish her name on social media. That is disgusting behaviour and we should never tolerate it. I will be asking the IT department to stop these blanket emails that are coming to everybody. People have the right to lobby us to take a particular decision but in this world, it is not the way to go to use intimidation to try and force us to go a particular way.

In exactly the same way, recently the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform approved funding for the security of our homes. It is a sad state of affairs when we as elected representatives have to consider the security of our families. The same situation arises for members of local authorities, however, and that facility should be extended to them. We are now living in a country where people have no respect whatsoever for public representatives. I am sure everybody in this House would agree that our local authority members are entitled to the same protection as Members of the Oireachtas. I ask the Leader to write to Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform on behalf of all Members of this House and ask that it would do that. I ask that you would support it as well, a Chathaoirligh.