Attempts to threaten or intimidate Gardai will be investigated: Commissioner

The Garda Commissioner has said any attempts to threaten and intimidate Gardai involved in dealing with the recent fuel blockades will be “fully investigated with the aim of bringing those involved to justice”.

In a message to Gardai today, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said: “I am concerned to hear about attempts in person and online to threaten and intimidate Gardaí who are engaged in their lawful work. I have viewed some of this online material myself and have been absolutely appalled by it. This will not be tolerated and will be fully investigated with the aim of bringing those involved to justice.”

He told Gardai: Since the start of the fuel protests you have been working hard to deal with many challenging policing situations all across the country. You have done this with great professionalism and dedication and I wish to thank you all sincerely for this. I completely understand the really difficult situations many of you have been faced with.

“Thanks to your efforts we have broken the illegal blockades which were interfering with access to our critical national infrastructure. This has meant that our emergency services, hospital and fuel supply network were able to continue to operate.

“I also want to thank you for responding to our calls for additional personnel needed to deal with this situation. Again, I appreciate many of you made personal sacrifices to answer this call to duty. Your Representative Associations are to be complimented for the level of co-operation that they have provided during this unprecedented period.”

He added that both the Minister for Justice and An Taoiseach had asked that he convey their gratitude to Gardai for all your work in the past week.