An arrest has been made today after attack on the Independent TD

A 51 year old man from the Cork Street area was arrested today by Gardaí investigating the assault on the former Minister of State, Conor Lally, security and crime editor with the Irish Times told The Hard Shoulder.

Gardaí harvested CCTV to help identify the suspect and he is now being held in Kevin Street Garda station. 

“This could be an assault causing harm case; if it is, the jail sentences for anybody convicted of that offence can be quite long,” Mr Lally said.

Pat Leahy, Irish Times Political Editor, told Newstalk Breakfast “there is a fear in Leinster House that somebody is going to be seriously hurt or worse if this trend continues”.

“They often feel under threat. The instances of actual violence are rare enough, but politicians feel the threat of it quite a lot,” Mr Leahy said.

People have been jailed for threats on Tánaiste Simon Harris, and similar threats come into the Taoiseach’s office regularly, he said. 

Mr Healy-Rae had his window down when a man approached his car and allegedly verbally abused and physically assaulted him. Gardaí approached the scene quickly and brought him to Kevin Street Garda station. He was then taken to St Vincent’s Hospital by ambulance, where he received stitches before being released. 

“It’s simply a fact of life now that politicians feel under threat from, I suppose, thugs who feel they can express their political views through the medium of violence on those TDs,” he said.

“There is a sort of sense amongst at least some people around Leinster House that this is all going in a very worrying direction. We saw what happened in the neighbouring jurisdiction where two MPs have been murdered in the last decade,” Mr Leahy said.

“There is a fear in Leinster House that somebody is going to be seriously hurt or worse if this trend continues,” he said.