Security costs are small price to pay for politicians

There seems to be many more fruitcakes and whack jobs and many more unpredictable and dangerous people around these days, motivated by extreme ideas picked up primarily on social media. We can all agree on that.

It’s a different world entirely from what went before.

Which is why I’ve the utmost respect for all sorts of people – politicians, gardaí, medical personnel, retailers and so on – who, as part of their job, engage with the general public, not knowing what they’ll be meeting on any given day.

In fairness, politicians face particular challenges in the current atmosphere where boundaries are now increasingly ignored, where decency and respect is all too frequently abandoned and courtesy is at a premium.

So we shouldn’t be surprised, the way things have gone, that politicians may require State support to maintain their own personal security and peace of mind. That’s why County Councillors, for instance, can avail of up to €10,000 for necessary security arrangements to be put in place, including at their homes, subject of proper invoicing.

Complaining about such support in current circumstances would amount to carping, bordering on reckless.

We need County Councillors to manage, execute and vindicate the whole notion of local democracy. But we also need them to feel safe while doing so.

Providing them with security supports is a small price to pay.

Local representatives need to be able to speaks their minds freely, perhaps more particularly when they take the contrarian side of the debate. Consensus and group think is something that just breeds complacency and a ‘sure, that’s grand’ approach.

On occasions some of our local politicians say things that may upset people and, as a result, they may attract unwelcome attention. We’ve experience of that here in Kerry as well, unfortunately.

At national level, it’s been even worse with the most appalling threats made against politicians, particularly Tánaiste Simon Harris and his family.

Our story on Page 8 this week tells how last year security supports – gates, cameras and lights – for a number of our County Councillors cost the taxpayer almost €38,000.

In truth, that’s a small amount of money spread amongst five county councillors to ensure they feel safe as public representatives.

Nobody is suggesting that we’re living in some lawless region of Mexico or South America or elsewhere. But danger levels for politicians have increased and, in order to protect them and the democracy they represent, we need to respond appropriately.

We must not allow ourselves to get fixated on the relatively modest cost of security supports.

If every single councillor in Ireland availed of the €10,000 security grant, it would amount to around €9.5m, which is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the €133 billion the Government plans to spend overall this year.