The incoming President of Garda Representative Association has hit out at the doxing of Gardaí involved in policing the fuel protests. 

Doxing is the process where a person’s name and address is published online without their permission. 

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has confirmed that a number of criminal probes are underway into social media posts that made threats against individual Gardaí and their families.  

Speaking ahead of the GRA’s annual conference in Westport, incoming Garda Representative Association President Niall Hodgins condemned those who sought to intimidate his members. 

“There can be no justification whatsoever for actions that seek to harass our members or endanger the public with media manipulation of public servants carrying out their lawful duties,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“Now, any such behaviour of this modern phenomenon that's known as ‘doxing’, it erodes public trust - whether it's members of An Garda Síochána or indeed any public servant. 

“It damages social cohesion and, of course, then it is criminal in nature, where you're identifying children and the domicile of members that I represent - that's where we draw the line.” 

Gardaí during the fuel protest. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie.

Mr Hodgins added that Gardaí are “big boys and we're big girls” who can handle being attacked - but their families deserve privacy. 

“We're well able to deal with that because that's in our training,” he said. 

“But where you start attacking our members and their families, then we have to draw the line there.”

Gardaí during the fuel protest. Picture by: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

Mr Hodgins described the policing of the fuel protests as “very complex” and said there were “very important questions” about how such situations could be managed in the future. 

He noted the Garda Commissioner had designated the protests as an ‘exceptional event’, which meant all rank and file leave was cancelled. 

Given the rarity of the event, Mr Hodgins said lessons must be learnt from the fuel protests. 

“The goal is to ensure that in future decisions of this nature are made with the highest degree of clarity, consistency and public accountability,” he said.

Main image: An Garda Síochána during the fuel protest. Picture by: RollingNews.ie.