Activists stage protest outside Bruton’s home
Activists have targeted the home of Minister Richard Bruton a week after staging a similar protest outside the family home of Health Minister Simon Harris.
Around 10 people, claiming to be part of the Fingal Battalion Against Austerity, gathered outside the minister for communications, climate action and environment’s house in north Dublin yesterday afternoon.
In a video posted on social media the group said they were protesting against the proposed introduction of carbon taxes.
Gardaí attended the protest which ended after around two hours.
It comes as Mr Harris said a similar protest which took place outside his Co Wicklow home last weekend was “a clear attempt to intimidate my family and my neighbours”.
“This was not a protest, this was a clear attempt to intimidate me and my neighbours. I think it was intimidation and thuggery. It felt like a violation, it was a violation.
“Imagine being in your house on a Sunday afternoon and feeling that you can’t leave. My wife is not a public figure. My three-week-old baby is not a public figure,” said the Fine Gael TD.
Mr Harris claimed that the group had used his wife and newborn baby to identify his house when they spotted her returning home from a walk.
Around a dozen protestors gather at the home of Environmment Minister Richard Bruton in Drumcondra in North Dublin. It comes a week after a similar protest at the home of Health Minister Simon Harris in Wicklow @rtenews pic.twitter.com/rPKaeaF3uJ
— Samantha Libreri (@SamanthaLibreri) February 17, 2019
“I think my wife and baby had been used to identify where my house was. It’s clear to me that people had a rough idea where we lived but didn’t know specifically which house we lived in and they saw my wife walking home,” he told Brendan O’Connor who was hosting RTÉ’s Marian Finucane Show over the weekend.
“Within seconds of my wife coming in the door they had gathered outside my house. The thing that keeps coming back to me is that they didn’t know I was in the house so all they saw was my wife and three-week-old baby.”
Meanwhile, a separate group of yellow vest activists protested at the Taoiseach’s home in Castleknock on Saturday night.
A spokesman for the Taoiseach said Mr Varadkar was not at home at the time of the protest but added: “In a free country, people have the right to protest so long as it is not violent and does not unduly inconvenience others.”
