Labour Senator Lorraine Higgins is to go to the Garda today detailing two death threats she received in recent days.
Ms Higgins said she received two emails from the same man warning that he would “get her” and included a link to a YouTube video of a shooting.
"I'm shocked and perturbed by the threats," she told The Irish Times. "I seriously thought these had dissipated, if not come to a halt, over the last few months, but unfortunately not.
"I'd much rather focus on my duties as a public representative and work assisting people in Galway East rather than having to go to An Garda Síochána about such matters, but I do feel the gravity of what has been directed at me," she said.
“And the fact a clip to a YouTube video of a man shooting would be included in the email deserves serious attention.”
Internet Bill
Ms Higgins has sought to introduce a new Internet Safety Bill aimed at curbing abuse and threats online.
She has received a number of death threats since running for the European elections in May 2014.
Since the introduction of her Bill, the threats have increased and she said she has no choice but to report them.
In the recent emails the Senator received, the man warned Ms Higgins he would “blow” her nose right off and told her she should disappear while she could.
It added: “Nothing better than to fill a rat’s mouth with Lead.”
Ms Higgins said she was fed up with this level of abuse and insisted politicians should not be subjected to such threats.
“It’s an unfortunate feature of modern-day politics that anyone would have to endure this kind of deranged abuse and that you cannot go about your work without these kind of distractions,” she said.
“Quite frankly, I’m fed up of having to deal with them. In any other line of work, this would be a health and safety issue, but in politics you are expected to take it as par for the course.
“It’s a sad reflection of where our political system could end up and I genuinely fear that a lot of our brightest and best will be lost to politics if this is the kind of vitriolic abuse you are expected to take.”
