Urgent security meeting at Leinster House as new details emerge of the arrest of a young intruder

New details have emerged about the arrest of a Leinster House intruder last weekend as a meeting to review parliamentary security takes place today among all stakeholders.

The 16-year-old male who broke into the building – for the second time – was subdued by four armed soldiers and forced to the floor.

The Houses of the Oireachtas are not commenting on the incident, around 3.30pm last Saturday, in which the teenager was finally trapped by four Military Police officers at a women’s toilet to the left of the stairs leading to the Dáil chamber.

They shouted orders to drop a screwdriver he was holding, and rushed the terrified youngster who panicked, several sources said.

He was put to the floor by a sergeant and three members of the 2nd MP section, who had arrived from the guardhouse at the Department of the Taoiseach, all of whom were armed with Glock pistols and yelling to disorient their prisoner. The youth was emotionally overcome and was afterwards trembling involuntarily.

Painters have now fully erased four messages, some in Irish, that the highly-educated intruder, from a prominent Dublin family, wrote along walls and columns in the reception area of Leinster House.

CCTV shows the Military Police had the intruder subdued within seven minutes of his image appearing on their screens. But questions are being asked as to why there was no external view of the area at Leinster Lawn where he gained entrance.

The suspect has been released and referred to a juvenile diversion programme, but it is understood that Gardaí from Pearse Street established from the camera of the man’s mobile phone that he had been in Leinster House weeks previously. A review of internal Leinster House CCTV from that time has now established a correspondence to the still images, it is understood.

The suspect entered and departed on that occasion without being charged with anything. He did not attempt to take anything on either occasion.

The intruder’s messages in Irish included references to Charles Stewart Parnell and the alleged statement “We love Mary Lou.” He used a screwdriver to take down a facsimile of the Proclamation and wrote on its reverse, in Irish, that he was a teenager and had obtained entry because “there is no security.”

He then wrote a message on the white middle panel of the tricolour which was standing in reception along with the EU and Ukrainian flags.

The teenager gained entry through a basement window at the rear entrance to Leinster House, a means he had used before, it is understood. He is also believed to have improperly been in at least one other State building in the near vicinity.

Today’s meeting will focus on the alarm system, it is understood, and also why the lifts were not disabled from the basement, which allowed the intruder to gain the main reception area and to then go down a corridor leading to the Dáil chamber.

A spokeswoman for the Houses of the Oireachtas declined to comment, but said it was “now a matter for the Gardaí.”

Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7.30am and Fionnán Sheahan’s exclusive take on the day’s news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter.