The Taoiseach and Tánaiste have insisted that their election campaigns have been “very pleasant” despite some reported disruptions while canvassing.
There have been reports of racial abuse of candidates during canvasses, and the Dáil has heard that one person was threatened with a box blade to take down Social Democrat candidate posters in May.
While canvassing in Co Mayo at the weekend, Taoiseach Simon Harris was challenged by the family of Enoch Burke, the secondary school teacher in prison for contempt of court for refusing to stay away from the school where he worked.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Harris said it was not a protest “when you impede somebody’s movement”.
“Doesn’t matter who they are, any citizen in this country, any person in this country, when you impede their movement up and down a main street of any town or a village, that’s not protest. It’s the very clear laws of the land.”
But he said it was not representative of how the election campaign had gone.
“We should never allow a very small number of people to distort reality, and the reality is that people are fundamentally decent. People can agree with your politics and disagree with your politics, but I find people are overwhelmingly decent, and I think push back against anything that impedes anybody.
“I would feel as strongly, by the way, if such actions were encountered by a leader of the opposition, and so we should always push back against it, we should always call it out, but we shouldn’t overstate it.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said democracy “is about allowing campaigns to happen”.
“This has been a very pleasant campaign actually, in terms of how people are interacting with us,” he said.
“We’ve been walking many, many streets over the last number of weeks and it’s been quite a pleasant encounter. That doesn’t necessarily mean the votes follow that direction. We have to work very hard over the next number of days to win votes for our local election candidates and our European candidates.
“I think it’s important that we put into perspective what’s happening and just make the point that the vast, vast, vast majority of the Irish people love their democracy and have different perspectives, but they’re engaging with us on the doorsteps. We just have to get that balance in the narrative.”
Mr Harris did not explicitly clarify whether byelections would be held before the next general election if several TDs are elected as MEPs in the European Parliament elections.
“This government has a very healthy majority when it comes to crucial votes in the Dail, you only have to look at the margin by which I was elected Taoiseach less than eight weeks ago,” he said.
“Interestingly, a number of the vacancies may indeed occur potentially on the opposition side as well… obviously if an opposition TD gets elected, the (government) majority increases in the Dail.”
