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Ballot Boxes Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Politicians back calls to stop publishing election candidates' home addresses

Some have said that it is putting potential candidates off running for election.

POLITICIANS HAVE SUPPORTED calls for the removal of election candidates home addresses from ballot papers in light of safety and privacy concerns.

As first reported by the Irish Examiner, Green party TD Patrick Costello has written to local government minister Kieran O’Donnell and the Electoral Commission about the issue.

Costello said the practice needs to end before next year’s local elections due to the dangers it poses to people running for office.

As it stands, all election candidates have their home or office address included on election ballot papers.

In a statement Costello said it is an issue of particular concern in light of “the rise in activity of individuals on the far-right”.

He pointed to an incident last month where a rock was thrown through the front window of Independent councillor for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Hugh Lewis’ family home in Ballybrack and said this was a “manifestation of this hate”. 

Incidents like these have been on the rise in recent years and politicians have increasingly highlighed safety concerns as a result. 

Earlier this year, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns spoke publicly about how she was left terrified after an online stalker showed up at her home one night in 2022. 

Similarly, junior minister at the Department of Health Anne Rabbitte and her Galway East constituency colleague, Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon reportedly had bags of excrement thrown at them at a meeting back in January. 

And relatedly, politicians like Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy have also had to deal with protests being held outside their homes

At the time, Varadkar said such protests were “unfair on his neighbours who didn’t sign up to have a politician living next door”.

Legislation

In January, Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne introduced a bill that would ban protests outside homes. The Senator also said the legislation could apply to protests outside direct provision centres.

The bill has received cross-party support and is waiting to progress to committee stage. Byrne told The Journal today that he is hopeful this will happen in Autumn when the Oireachtas returns from its reccess. 

Speaking to The Journal, Byrne, who has previously had a rock thrown through his office’s window, said he supports Costello’s call to stop publishing election candidates’ home addresses on ballot papers. 

He said it is important to protect the privacy of the person who “has the courage to put their name on a ballot paper”.

Byrne added that it relates to the legislation he is bringing forward in that “those who protest outside the homes of those who have the courage to put their name on a ballot paper, rarely have the courage to put their own name on a ballot paper”.

Related to this, Byrne said he has spoken to potential younger election candidates who are put off running for elections because of concerns around safety and abuse. 

“Particularly around the abuse on social media, that is a concern. But you are now seeing extremist groups going beyond what is acceptable,” Byrne said. 

“Yes you can disagree with somebody’s opinions, their politics or views, but there is a way of expressing that.

He added:

“It is going to be more difficult to encourage more people to get into politics when you see those unacceptable levels of abuse starting to grow.”

Byrnes’s concerns were echoed by Fiona O’Loughlin, Fianna Fáil Senator and chair of the Irish Women’s Parliamentary Caucus.

O’Loughlin said she has previously written to the Minister to suggest that a candidate’s full home address is not published on a ballot paper. 

“The electorate are entitled to know where candidates live- but the exact address is not necessary,” O’Loughlin said.

Instead, she has proposed that candidates could sign an affidavit as to their address and that only a town or townland should be included on a ballot paper. 

“The the present situation could be off putting for candidates, and they are thinking obviously, not just of themselves, but family members and neighbours. This small change would a beneficial one, and a positive one,” O’Loughlin added. 

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    Mute Irish Harp
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    Aug 1st 2023, 6:42 PM

    If they were doing a good patriotic job then they wouldn’t be scared to publish their address. Let’s just say I’m not surprised they are worried.

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    Mute Irish Harp
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:04 PM

    @Jimmy Wallace: Of course. I never attacking property is right.

    75
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    Mute Irish Harp
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:05 PM

    @Irish Harp: * I never said

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    Mute Jason Memail
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:09 PM

    @Irish Harp: But a thinly veiled threat of “as long as you’re doing a good job you don’t need to be scared”? Seems kinda mafia-esque if you ask me.

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    Mute Roj Blake
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:12 PM

    @Irish Harp: problem is those who are doing what is in the nations interests are liable to be attacked by the skum who think violence is acceptable.

    52
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    Mute Irish Harp
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:23 PM

    @Roj Blake: The problem is there is only a handful of TDs working in the nations interests.

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    Mute BarryH
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:25 PM

    @Irish Harp: One man’s patriotism could be another man’s terrorism. It is all down to the definition you use. Don’t publish their private addresses and introduce a law making personal attacks on politicians, their workers or their families as an attack on democracy , if carried out, outside of their work places. Media, to me qualifies as work place.

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    Mute Jason Memail
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    Aug 1st 2023, 8:15 PM

    @Irish Harp: Wrong again. The problem is that people are attacking houses – Get it right. No justification for it, ever.

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    Mute Mark Sheehan
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    Aug 1st 2023, 10:49 PM

    @Irish Harp: read the article again, it isn’t just general election but local elections also .Some people just can’t look beyond the horizon.

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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    Aug 1st 2023, 6:30 PM

    No brainer. Everyone has a right to privacy for their families. A person’s home especially, should be completely off limits.

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Aug 1st 2023, 6:33 PM

    @Louis Jacob: Definitely! It’s been that way in the U.K. since 2009.

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    Mute I'm Far Right
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    Aug 1st 2023, 6:37 PM

    @Louis Jacob: Politicians made laws banning people from your home. Telling you how many people can be in your home and when. Telling you how far you can travel from your home and why… So I have no sympathy whatsoever for them. They deserve much worse than the treatment they currently get tbh

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    Mute Corporate Interests
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    Aug 1st 2023, 6:40 PM

    @Louis Jacob: We do find it amusing that you confuse a politician with a person. Indeed, we thank you for the suggestion. Such a light-hearted approach might be a good idea for our next round of highly sponsored marketing campaigns.

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    Mute I'm Far Right
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:01 PM

    @Jimmy Wallace: No

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    Mute Jason Memail
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:05 PM

    @I’m Far Right: Accurate username, given the sort of actions we’ve seen your mates get up to recently. Skum of the earth.

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    Mute Roj Blake
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:10 PM

    @I’m Far Right: those necessary public health laws were there to save lives, incl those too stupid to understand

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    Mute I'm Far Right
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:14 PM

    @Roj Blake: Lol. Sure pal.

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    Mute Mark Sheehan
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    Aug 1st 2023, 8:09 PM

    @I’m Far Right: simply shows what a k#ob you are. A ballot paper will also include those who may be unsuccessful at local elections but run because they wish to improve their electoral area.

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    Mute Paddy Keane
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    Aug 1st 2023, 6:40 PM

    The Green Party are against freedom of information and free speech, which are the same thing. I have doubts about the intended goal of this proposal. Enforcing such a measure in a small country like Ireland appears impractical. What is their reasoning behind it?

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    Mute Jason Memail
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:07 PM

    @Paddy Keane: Some Olympic level leap to jump from trying to ensure that people’s homes aren’t attacked to apparently being against free speech. Are you in favour of people’s homes being attacked?

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    Mute Paddy Keane
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:52 PM

    @Jason Memail:
    Politicians have access to the names and addresses of all voters in their electoral area, and some politicians might have connections to questionable individuals and organizations. It seems that many Irish politicians are in favour of restricting free speech and promoting hate speech. They seem to have a desire to control the flow of information.

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    Mute Steve O'Hara Smith.
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:57 PM

    @Paddy Keane: Nobody else has to publish their home address, it’s as simple as that.

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    Mute Denis Slattery
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:16 PM

    That rock through the window incident still doesn’t smell right.
    The note was a bit long winded for something attached to rock . For a chap who wasn’t shy about giving media interviews he didn’t upload a photo of the rock or message.Modern double glazed windows are difficult enough to actually break and would normally take a few attempts before they break which I suspect wouldn’t suit a furtive rock thower.
    More than a whiff of Jesse Smollett about it

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    Mute Ken O'Neill
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:20 PM

    @Denis Slattery:
    It was without doubt a false flag, the oldest political act of deceit in the book.

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    Mute Paddy Keane
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    Aug 1st 2023, 8:03 PM

    @Denis Slattery:
    According to a credible journalist, a window was struck by a rock. This is not an isolated event, as a similar occurrence was reported by the same journalist a few months prior.

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    Mute Kay Tombe
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:27 PM

    It would be much better if they banned the array of posters on lamp posts, secured with cable ties which they leave behind when they take down the posters. Why can’t we do what’s done in france? A big board is erected in strategic parts of each constituency with details of each candidate and indiscriminate posting is not allowed.

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    Mute Ken O'Neill
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:18 PM

    Without a doubt these are by a wide margin the most deceitful and most hated shower of sociopaths to have ever occupied Dail Eireann, so oblivious to the antipathy on the ground that they’re trying to bring in laws to make it illegal for you to hate them, and if they pass don’t for a second think these Orwelian bad-thought laws will ultimately be of any benefit to anyone but themselves.

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    Mute Steve O'Hara Smith.
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    Aug 1st 2023, 7:58 PM

    @Ken O’Neill: So vote them out.

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Aug 2nd 2023, 10:31 AM

    @Ken O’Neill: yes, we should replace them with a group of Marxist psychopaths with a history of indiscriminate murder and destruction.

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    Mute Ken O'Neill
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    Aug 2nd 2023, 12:46 PM

    @John Mulligan: … well they’re sleeping with the enemy now, but you’ll no doubt be keeping the bed warm for them.

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    Mute Willie Marty
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    Aug 1st 2023, 9:13 PM

    Im banning all policitians from my home at election time which isnt that often tbh as thats the only time they grace me with my presence

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    Mute Nestor
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    Aug 2nd 2023, 1:14 AM

    I have got letters from politicians even though I don’t want them.

    Politicians should not have access to our names and addresses either!

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    Mute Pato
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    Aug 1st 2023, 6:36 PM

    Proper order.

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    Mute liam
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    Aug 2nd 2023, 8:53 AM

    This must be one of the most idiotic ideas ever put forward. Who do these people think they are? They want to put themselves forward to represent the public but don’t want the public to know where they live.
    These people have no idea what the term ” Representative Democracy” means and the fact that they would even consider such legislation or ideas as stated above means they have no business in the public arena.
    We really are losing the plot here with all the scaremongering and propaganda being published to soften public opinion.

    7
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