Calls to Gardaí suggesting a bomb had been left at the home of Tánaiste Simon Harris were made by people who are “seeking to hound him out of office”, a former Fine Gael TD has said. 

Following the calls yesterday, Garda launched a major security operation and the property in Greystones, County Wicklow, was searched. 

In a statement, Minister Harris described the bomb scare as a “clear and sinister pattern and a very apparent motivation; to intimidate me out of public office.”

On Newstalk Breakfast, his party colleague Ciarán Cannon said there is “no question” that the threats against politicians have gotten worse in recent years. 

“What mostly resided on social media for the last number of years is now beginning to filter out into what you might call the real, physical world with these horrific threats against the Tánaiste and his young family,” the former Galway East TD said. 

“What’s causing it? A general effort, I would argue, globally to divide people, to polarise people into their respective camps. 

“That, unfortunately, is beginning to have an impact here in Ireland; there’s no question about that.

“When we allow really abusive and threatening behaviour… people are emboldened to take that abuse out into the real world, the physical world and call up police stations and threaten to bomb the Tánaiste’s home.” 

Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Mr Cannon continued that the Tánaiste is "completely correct” to draw attention to the threat and that he believes that the people involved are “seeking to hound him out of office”. 

“We need to see leadership from the leadership of all our political parties here in Ireland and, indeed, those who lead the independent groupings to say that this is simply not acceptable,” he said. 

“If we get that kind of response from the body politic as a whole, I think it would be really important in sending out a very strong message to those who are engaging with this behaviour that it’s not acceptable in any form and has no support in any political quarter.” 

Simon Harris. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie.

Mr Cannon added that politicians “do not stop being human when they’re elected” to Dáil Éireann. 

“We forget sometimes that politicians are just parents, neighbours, members of our local community,” he said. 

“But the moment they’re elected, they somehow get treated as symbols instead of human beings and that makes it far too easy to justify the abuse. 

“And it’s corrosive right now, it’s becoming deeply corrosive to democracy in Ireland.” 

When Simon Harris was elected Taoiseach last year, concerns were raised about the safety of his family home, which Gardaí are understood to have described as “very difficult” to protect.

Main image: Simon Harris and Micheál Martin at a press conference. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie