Updated 12.57pm
TÁNAISTE JOAN BURTON’S car was briefly blocked from leaving an event in south Dublin this morning.
Burton was at the Musgrave Retail Partners in Fonthill in Clondalkin where she was attending a ‘Skills for Work Week’ event on the day that the unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 10.1 per cent.
After the event her car was blocked by a small number of protesters as it attempted to leave the area but the incident ended after around 10 minutes, it’s understood.
Gardaí confirmed that they attended the scene of a small protest in Fonthill at 11.45am.
They said the Tánaiste was present and the protesters blocked her exit for a short period of time.
There was no violence, no public order incidents and no arrests were made. Burton and her advisors are now on their way back into the city centre.
Last November, the Tánaiste was blocked from leaving an event in Jobstown for some three hours with her and her advisors subjected to verbal abuse by protesters. A water balloon thrown was also thrown at Burton.
Gardaí investigating the incident have made a number of arrests in recent weeks, including the Socialist TD Paul Murphy who was later released without charge.
This afternoon, a spokesperson for Burton played down the incident: “The only significant event this morning was that the Tanaiste visited Musgrave’s to see at first hand an important career development initiative – as part of a collaboration between Government and industry – that will benefit 350 young jobseekers.
“In that context, it should be noted that latest figures this morning showed a 10.8% year-on-year decrease in the number of people on the Live Register, with almost 43,000 fewer people on the Register now than at this time last year.”
- additional reporting from Michelle Hennessy
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