THE MINISTER FOR Justice has said that attempts to physically block asylum seeker accommodation in Co Westmeath was an “effort to intimidate” and that demonstrators “don’t have a right to suggest that they are speaking on behalf of this country”.

On Friday, a group of demonstrators blocked the entrance to Columb Barracks in Mullingar as asylum seekers were being brought to the site for temporary accommodation in an incident that led to a garda being assaulted and one man being arrested for public order offences.

Minister Simon Harris has said today that he is “extraordinarily grateful to the gardaí for the job that they do in policing what can often be difficult situations”.

“I have huge confidence in their ability to properly assess a situation and decide how best to police it, taking all factors into account,” he said.

“I have said time and time again, I believe very strongly, there’s a right to protest in a democratic society. Some of what we see isn’t protest though. Some of what we see is an effort to intimidate. I thought the scenes in Mullingar were very much in that space.”

The government recently decided to use Columb Barracks, which has been closed for several years, for a maximum of 12 months to temporarily house asylum seekers for up to than three weeks each before they are moved to other accommodation.

A bus carrying asylum seekers entered the premises at around 11.30am on Friday but demonstrators stopped a second bus from entering the premises at around 1pm.

The group remained at the site and blocked the entrance to the premises around 9pm, leading to gardaí requesting the crowd to disperse to allow for staff to enter the property.

A male garda was assaulted during that time but did not require medical treatment.

Gardaí arrested a man in his 20s for public order offences shortly after midnight, who was subsequently released. A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Minister Harris said Ireland is a welcoming country and that this type of demonstration involves a “very small number of people without any mandate” wrongly suggesting “that they speak for the masses”.

“I got an electoral mandate in the last election, so did every member of Dáil Éireann, and there’s no member of Dáil Éireann, as far as I can see, that supports such actions,” he said.

“When you see the largest humanitarian crisis that any of us, regardless of age, have never lived through, a war back on the continent of Europe, of course that causes real challenges in terms of how we will respond,” the minister said.

“But people in this country want us to respond compassionately and they also want to know that there’s a balanced, robust rules-based system in place, and we’re doing both.

“So yes, people have a right to democratically protest but they certainly don’t have a right to suggest that they are speaking on behalf of this country.”

The Department of Defence has said it is liaising with gardaí following the incident.

“Over the past year, communities across Ireland have demonstrated great solidarity and welcome for those who come here seeking refuge,” the department said in a statement

“The Department strongly condemns any attempt to promote division and hostility.”

Additional reporting by Diarmuid Pepper