T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris’s family home is currently being searched by Garda\u00ed following bomb threats, it is understood.<\/p>\n
The threat was called into multiple Garda stations on Sunday. Garda\u00ed say they are currently investigating the matter.<\/p>\n
This is the third threat made against the Fine Gael leader and his family in just over a week.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, a woman was arrested and later released in connection with threats made to Mr Harris’s family on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Then, on Friday night, Mr Harris said a “vile and horrific” threat was made which targeted a close family member.<\/p>\n
Following this incident, Mr Harris called the threats part of a “clear and sinister pattern” aimed at intimidating him out of public office.<\/p>\n
In a personal statement issued to the Irish Examiner, Mr Harris said what he and his family have endured in recent weeks could not be dismissed as part of political life.<\/p>\n
\u201cSixteen years ago, I was first elected to public office. Serving my community and my country has been the greatest honour of my life. I have devoted myself to public service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have faced the rough and tumble of politics. I believe in robust debate, scrutiny, and challenge. It is a cornerstone of our democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what I and my family have faced in recent weeks is not political debate. It is abuse. It is intimidation. It is behaviour that should never, ever be treated as normal. And no one is to blame except those choosing to abuse and make threats.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste said the threats have caused \u201cdeeply distressing consequences\u201d for his family, outlining that direct threats were made against his children last week, while on Friday night a \u201cvery close family member\u201d was also targeted.<\/p>\n
\n More to follow\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris’s family home is currently being searched by Garda\u00ed following bomb threats, it is understood. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1111,42,43,1112,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-7551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-court-and-crime","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics-and-analysis","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}