Calls for 'sterilised zones' around Dail after multiple arrests at protest

There have been calls for “sterilised zones” around Leinster House following Wednesday’s fraught and widely condemned protests.

Cathaoirleach Jerry Buttimer told the Irish Mirror that following the protests and a break into Leinster House, “we can’t keep getting by on a wing and a prayer” when it comes to security and a review is required of the parliamentary building.

As a security review started in Leinster House, Virgin Media News suggested that Ceann Comhairle raised the prospect of introducing mechanisms like the safe access zones that will be introduced for hospitals offering abortion zones. This would prohibit protests within a certain distance of the building.

However, politicians are now concerned that there will be another large protest at Leinster House on Budget Day on October 10 that could be more sinister. Mr Buttimer has raised the idea of putting a “sterile zone” around Leinster House as he told the Irish Mirror that the protests were “an attack on the institutions of the State”.

He expressed concerns that our conversation would be different if someone got hurt or perhaps killed.

“I am not trying to be alarmist, but those people had no respect for anybody or law and order,” he said.

“They were intent on one thing; Causing disruption and chaos.”

He said that precautions must be taken around Leinster House if there are risks that politicians and workers could be stopped from going about their business due to protests.

“If you take the area around Buswells Hotel and Kildare Street and the gate on Merrion Street, there needs to be a plan put in place so members and staff and those who work in Leinster House can get in and out safely,” Mr Buttimer said.

"We had to be cordoned off and impounded in Leinster House for two and three hours [on Wednesday].

“The right to peaceful protest is one thing. But people don’t have a right to interfere with parliamentary democracy and interfere with the running of the House of the Oireachtas.

“You could look at it as a temporary measure on occasions like Budget Day or the first day of the Dail.

“The Gardai had intelligence which suggested there was going to be some kind of protest. They erected barriers so they had knowledge something would be happening.

“Only for the Gardai, there could have been someone seriously hurt and I want to commend and thank the Gardai who were there. What they had to put up with was unacceptable.

“My fundamental point is there needs to be a sterile zone at both ends of Leinster House to allow for access and egress.

“We have to review security. We had a breach of security earlier in the year where an intruder got into the House.”

The Green Party Whip Marc O Cathasaigh told the Irish Mirror that he was concerned that Ireland could see an escalation of violence towards politicians similar to what was experienced in the UK.

Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered outside a constituency clinic in June 2016. Conservative MP Sir David Ammes was stabbed in his constituency surgery in October 2021.

Mr O Cathasaigh said: “The treatment of Michael Healy Rae [on Wednesday], if he didn’t have two guards flanking him, how do we imagine that might have played out

“Whatever the context that creates it, it only takes one person to make a bad decision in the moment for us to find ourselves in that situation.

“That was true of the Jo Cox and David Ammes situations

“It only takes a split second for something serious to happen.”

In the Dail, the Ceann Comhairle said that the protests were “without precedent”.

“It was a fundamental attack on democracy,” he said.

“The people out there appear to me to have had nothing to offer, only the promotion of hate.”

Angela Willis, the Assistant Garda Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan Region, met with the Ceann Comhairle and Oireachtas authorities on Thursday. It is understood they discussed Wednesday’s events and plans for future protests.

At the National Ploughing Championships, Tanaiste Micheal Martin expressed concerns that things were getting more “dangerous” and “vitriolic”.

“Think some of these people are trying to create an alternative reality in terms of the country, undermining our democracy, and some of it almost approximates to sort of fascist-like behaviour in terms of intolerance, in terms of not allowing people to go in and out of democratically elected parliament, a very serious issue.

“I think some of these people are trying to create an alternative reality in terms of the country, undermining our democracy, and some of it almost approximates to sort of fascist-like behaviour in terms of intolerance, in terms of not allowing people to go in and out of democratically elected parliament, a very serious issue,” he said.

"(Things are) getting more dangerous.

"We saw what happened in the United Kingdom and the level and the vitriol and the nature of the presence of some people is a grave cause for concern, but we have to really reflect as to how best we deal with it."

Some 13 people were arrested during the protest. As two men were granted bail, after appearing in court on public order charges, gardai asked for bail conditions that would see the accused ordered to stay away from Molesworth Street and the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Judge Alan Mitchell said there was a Constitutional right of assembly and “that would be a step too far.”

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