*Cllr Mary Howard was one of the first councillors to recieve the disturbing phone calls female councillors were subject to during the summer
CLARE councillors have called for elected representatives’ precise home addresses to be removed from publicly available electoral documents amid concerns over harassment, intimidation and the safety of people in public life.
A motion brought by Cllrs Rachel Hartigan (FF), Mary Howard (FG), Rita McInerney (FF) and Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) at the September meeting of Clare County Council calls for electoral legislation to be amended so candidates would not have to publish their precise residential addresses.
The councillors said a candidate’s town, village or general locality and county should instead be sufficient to identify their geographical area.
The motion said publishing precise residential addresses “serves little additional democratic purpose” and could create unnecessary safety and privacy risks for candidates, elected representatives and their families.
The motion follows a series of disturbing phone calls received by female councillors earlier this year, including Cllr Howard, who reported the matter to Gardaí.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Hartigan said the abuse and intimidation female councillors had been subjected to during the summer had the potential to put women off entering politics and public life. “Thank God it never became a physical threat,” she said.
She said the experience had made her more aware of how public and readily available private addresses could be, giving people access to information which could put elected representatives and their families at risk.
Cllr Hartigan said that since becoming an elected representative in 2024, she had received only one or two letters from constituents at her home, with most correspondence instead coming through email or WhatsApp. She said the same was true for many councillors around the country and argued that a general locality should be sufficient rather than an exact house number. “Everyone doesn’t need to know the exact house an elected representative goes home to,” she said.
Cllr Howard said she received an “incredibly disturbing phone call” on July 21. She described it as a “bridge too far” and said her home address was immediately removed from the Clare County Council website. “It was absolutely terrifying,” she said, adding that she did not know where the caller was.
Cllr Howard said the calls continued until July 31 and that a person had since been identified. She said the caller had contacted almost every female councillor and that she was concerned about where the situation could have gone. “Everyone in Ennis knows where I live, those outside Ennis don’t need to,” she said. “It’s so important to have some level of anonymity.”
Cllr McInerney described the proposed change as a “very practical measure” which highlighted a serious issue.
Cllr Colleran Molloy said she had also received calls and recalled answering a withheld number while waiting for a train before realising who was calling and immediately hanging up. She said there was “really no need” for the specific address of an elected representative to be publicly available and described the proposal as a “no brainer”.
Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) said there was “no doubt local government and politics has changed over the years”. He referred to an incident where someone came to his home when he was not there and upset his wife over an issue which had nothing to do with him or Clare County Council. Cllr Lynch said he became “so angry” that he wanted to confront the person, but his wife stopped him. He said the experience had changed his view of politics. “We ask our addresses are removed. There are ways you can contact us, but that sort of behaviour is not acceptable in this day and age,” he said. “I do this for the love of my county, the love of my community and for my area.”
He added: “Sometimes I get it wrong, sometimes I get it right. We are all human but there is no need for that abuse. We are not just something to be trashed at.”
Cllr Shane Talty (FF) also supported the motion, saying one of the most sinister lines in a movie is, “We know where you live”. He said there was no reason for the public to know exactly where elected representatives lived, pointing out that councillors’ phone numbers and email addresses were already available.
Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) said the proposed change would not be enough on its own to address the “toxic environment” created by social media. Cllr Garrihy said he supported the intention of the motion but that there was “an awful lot more to do” and the issue could not be trivialised.
Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) said it was sad to hear interviews with councillors about what had happened and said public representatives around the country were “terrified”. “Being a public representative is a difficult job without this carry-on in the background,” he said.
The motion calls for the issue to be circulated to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and to all local authorities for their consideration and support.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
