Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has said a man threatened to kill him while he was having coffee with his husband, adding that he no longer looks at online abuse directed towards him.
He said he has repeatedly been called a paedophile or a groomer online while also facing other homophobic abuse.
His comments come after an entirely separate incident in which a man has since pleaded guilty through his solicitor to assaulting Mr O’Gorman while he was on an election canvass on Saturday.
In a pre-election broadcast interview on Wednesday, the Green Party leader said he was conscious that it was entirely legitimate for him to face robust scrutiny, criticism and accountability as an elected representative.
However, while not referring to the incident on Saturday, he raised concern over abuse of politicians being “normalised”.
Asked if he believed he became a target for abuse early in the lifetime of the Government due to homophobia, Mr O’Gorman said: “Yeah, to be honest – a significant part of it is.
“Often when I get abuse or when someone tackles me on the street, if the conversation goes on, often it gets kind of coarse, homophobic abuse quite quickly.”
Speaking on Virgin Media’s Group Chat, he added: “If I put up a post on anything, within the first five minutes you’ll see ‘paedo’, ‘groomer’ and all this kind of stuff come up.
“Even three weeks ago on a Sunday, myself and Ray [Mr O’Gorman’s husband] were out getting a coffee in Phoenix Park and an older couple – maybe in their early 60s – and the man started shouting ‘you effing paedo, I’d effing kill you if you weren’t in public’.
“So, in my head I’ve partially normalised this a little bit because it’s happened so often – it is what I have to do to keep moving.”
Mr O’Gorman said the experience in other countries was that the public had less access to politicians.
He said there was “very real evidence” of politicians in Ireland being “attacked” during the local elections earlier this year.
He continued: “If I allow myself to get upset or dwell on it, I might not even get out of bed in the morning – so I just have to keep going.
“It is not actually okay for our political system at all because it is so important that politicians in Ireland go to the doors and have that kind of direct contact with people.”
The TD for Dublin West said it was a “big relief” that his own parents were not on social media to see the abuse he faces.
Simon Harris has decided on November 29 for the general election (Brian Lawless/PA)
The personal interview came days before Taoiseach Simon Harris will formally seek the dissolution of the Dail ahead of the election on November 29.
Mr O’Gorman said the Green Party had delivered “really important policies” during its time in the coalition.
He said: “Whether it’s the stuff on climate in terms of the lowest emissions for 30 years, the really meaningful stuff we’ve done for parents in cutting the cost of childcare.
“That’s what inspires me to keep going – the knowledge that in the Irish system a small group of people can make a really meaningful difference.”
Mr O’Gorman’s term as Minister for Integration has been characterised by the department’s response to a dramatic rise in the number of people seeking asylum in Ireland, coupled with Ireland accommodating more than 100,000 people who fled the war in Ukraine.
The crisis around accommodation for international protection applicants manifested itself in the development of a series of makeshift migrant camps along canals in Dublin city centre.
There have also been a series of protests and arson attacks surrounding locations earmarked for use for asylum seekers.
Mr O’Gorman said: “Absolutely I’d recognise there have been real challenges across the last two years, but we were able to provide people fleeing from war and persecution looking for safety.
“We have been able to do that, but, fundamentally, we have to radically change how we provide accommodation for people in this country – less reliance on private hotels.
“I set that out in the new accommodation strategy published earlier this year, a move to state-owned accommodation.”
– The Group Chat is available on podcast apps and the Virgin Media player.