FORMER TAOISEACH LEO Varadkar has said he trusts the security arrangements gardaí have for politicians, telling The Journal today that the incident in Mayo with Taoiseach Simon Harris this week was “unpleasant”. 

Harris faced disruption while canvassing in Westport and barracking from protesters in Castlebar about state provision of asylum seeker accommodation in the county over the weekend. 

Among those who challenged Harris on Sunday was the family of Enoch Burke, the secondary school teacher currently in prison for contempt of court for refusing to stay away from the school where he worked.

Harris said today that it is not a protest “when you impede someone’s movement”, after he was heckled by a crowd that included family members of Enoch Burke.

‘Unpleasant’ 

When asked about the incident and if he believed there has been a step-change in threatening behaviour that might warrant tougher security, Varadkar said: 

“There’s a distinction between somebody hassling a politician and giving them a hard time, which I don’t think is right, and somebody actually doing physical harm to a person or property, and in fairness, what I saw in Mayo was unpleasant, but I don’t think there was any suggestion that it resulted in any form of violence or damage to property.”

He added that he fears there could be an attack on an Irish politician in the future. 

“I know the gardai are more concerned than they would have been previously. They’re obviously aware about what happened in Slovakia [the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico], attacks on some politicians in the UK. And, you know, there is kind of a feeling in Irish political circles that we are kind of overdue. It’s a horrible thought, but it’s probably correct,” he said.

Varadkar, who still has an active security detail due to credible threats against his life, said nobody in Irish politics really wants security people around them.

Access to politicians

Having travelled to other countries such the US, the UK and France, Varadkar said he has seen how cut off politicians are from the public for security reasons. 

“I remember in pride parades around the world where there’s this kind of rope put around people. And I don’t think anybody wants that to be in the scenario,” he added. 

“I trust the gardai to have it about right. They do monitor things very closely. They’re not heavy handed which I think is important for reasons of public accessibility. They do monitor very closely the nature of the threats that come through,” he said, adding that the gardaí are able to distinguish between somebody “who’s just kind of hurling abuse” and somebody who has 96 convictions such as for harming other people.

“They’re the ones that they will take the most seriously,” he said.