A taskforce examining the safety of politicians echoes calls by Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore to remove the requirement for election candidates to publish their home address on nomination and ballot papers.<\/p>\n
Deputy Whitmore, who has proposed these measures in her Electoral (Home Address of Candidates) Bill 2024, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to media reports, the Taskforce on Safe Participation in Political Life acknowledges that the abuse of public representatives is problematic and is disproportionately targeted at women and minority groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the unpublished report\u2019s recommendations is that it should no longer be a requirement for election candidates to publish their home address and that this should be optional.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity and safety are legitimate concerns for election candidates, with threats against those running for public office becoming more frequent and increasingly sinister in nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of the abuse levelled at women, both online and in the real world, is often gendered and sexualised in nature. The last thing we need is to create further disincentives to female participation in politics when we are trying to achieve the opposite.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers of minority groups might also be discouraged from running for election if they are required to publish their address for fear of being targeted.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn June 7, we will have local and European elections in Ireland, with a general election less than a year away. If the Government genuinely cares about the safety and wellbeing of candidates, it should enact my Bill as a matter of urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n
March 15, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A taskforce examining the safety of politicians echoes calls by Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore to remove the requirement for election candidates to publish their home address on nomination and ballot papers. Deputy Whitmore, who has proposed these measures in her Electoral (Home Address of Candidates) Bill 2024, said: \u201cAccording to media reports, the Taskforce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[268,7,493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release","category-targeting-of-politicians"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n