PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT TD Paul Murphy has said that a protest outside his family home is “completely wrong and inappropriate” and that those who take part in such protests are doing the “dirty work” of the “landlord class”.
The Dublin South-West TD was speaking after a group of protestors turned up outside his house last night, while Murphy and his partner were preparing to give their newborn baby a bath.
Their baby is just over two months old.
“There was a protest by 10 or 11 far-right protesters outside my house last night, overwhelmingly men, a number of them covering their faces”, he said.
“We were literally preparing to give our baby a bath and then you have the protest of people outside.
Gardaí were called to the scene and observed from a squad car while the group held placards containing anti-immigration messages.
One member of the group also live-streamed the protest on TikTok. He could be heard shouting “Our children are in danger” to a local resident who came out to ask the group to leave.
“What I would say to them is come and protest outside the Dáil. Do not be targeting my family home or anyone else’s family home”, Murphy said.
According to Murphy, this group is not anti-establishment.
“These people present themselves as being in some way anti-establishment – but look at who they spend their time attacking.”
Murphy says the group were “giving out leaflets” opposing a People Before Profit bill which would make it “more difficult potentially for landlords to be able to evict people, would enable the government to be able to introduce proper rent controls”.
The bill seeks to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to reduce rents to “affordable levels” by limiting them to a maximum of 25 per cent of net monthly household incomes. It also seeks to establish a National Rent Authority to enforce it.
“In reality, they are attacking and focused their criticism on those who are most opposed to the government”, he said.
“The truth is that they are acting as unwitting agents, presumably unwitting in most cases, of the real establishment in this country, of a landlord class in this country.
“They’re doing their dirty work, and they’re not anti-establishment in the slightest.”
He added: “Anybody who has illusions and those who have a chat about the kind of behaviour they’re involved in, and about who they really represent.”
Multiple neighbours left their homes and asked Gardaí if they could move the group away from the front of Spear and Murphy’s family home.
In the live-streamed video, a man could be heard insisting that the protest was “peaceful” repeatedly, and adding that they were on a “public road”.
A Garda spokesperson confirmed last night that officers had responded to a “small protest” in the area.
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