Three men have been arrested as part of an investigation into demonstrations at the Taoiseach’s home.
Two men aged in their 40s and another in his 30s were arrested this morning in Dublin and are being held in separate garda stations.
They are being detained under section four of the Criminal Justice Act and can be questioned for up to 24 hours.
The Taoiseach is the most senior elected official who has been targeted by anti-migrant protesters.
Demonstrators have turned up twice outside his home in Co Wicklow in the past seven weeks.
On Thursday 2 May a group of around a dozen masked individuals turned up outside Taoiseach Simon Harris’s house, holding banners with anti-immigrant slogans, as his wife was preparing their two young children for bed.
Images were subsequently circulated on social media.
Last Friday another small masked anti-immigrant group waving Irish flags and demanding border closures arrived at the Taoiseach’s home and were there a short time before gardaí directed them to leave the area.
Gardaí in Wicklow have been investigating the incidents and this morning arrested three men for alleged harassment.
The man in his 30s is being questioned about last Friday’s incident, the two others are being detained in connection with the incident outside the Taoiseach’s home in May.
The suspects in custody are well known to gardaí for their presence at several anti-migrant protests all over the country, including at Ballyogan in south Dublin.
Gardaí from Wicklow and Wexford, supported by the armed Special Detective Unit, which investigates security threats to the State, were involved in this morning’s operation.
Searches were also carried out and evidential material removed.
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Garda Headquarters said the three men were arrested for alleged offences contrary to Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act as part of ongoing investigations into the alleged harassment of an elected official.
Section 10 of the legislation makes it an offence to harass someone by “intentionally or recklessly seriously interfere with the other’s peace and privacy or cause alarm, distress or harm to the other.”
The offence is punishable by a €1,500 fine or up to 12 months in prison at District Court level, but up to seven years in prison for more serious offences prosecuted in the Circuit Court.
The homes of Minister for Integration Roderic O’ Gorman and Socialist TD Paul Murphy have also been targeted and earlier this year the home in Co Meath where the Minister for Justice lives with her husband and young child had to be evacuated following a bomb scare which turned out to be a hoax.
Mr Harris has previously said that he believes that people’s families and people’s homes should be out of bounds and that it was not appropriate for protests to be held there.
A separate garda investigation is also continuing into incidents in Westport and Castlebar, Co Mayo, where the Taoiseach was jostled while out canvassing ahead of the recent elections.
Protests at the homes of politicians and elected individuals have been widely condemned.
Speaking after the arrests this afternoon, the Taoiseach said that he could not comment on ongoing garda investigations, but said that there is a distinction between protest and “some of the carry on we see outside certain people’s homes”.
“I’m speaking broadly in relation to that and in certain scenarios around the country,” he added.
“Protest is a fundamental part of democracy; protesting does not equate to thuggery. I know the difference, I’m glad the gardaí know the difference and the people of Ireland certainly know the difference as well.”
