MEMBERS OF THE CABINET have been forced to change their mobile phone numbers after far-left members of a trade union posted their numbers online and called on others to contact them about proposed cuts to the minimum wage.

Ministers including Brian Lenihan, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, health minister Mary Harney and many other cabinet TDs received ‘abusive’ calls and text messages late last week, the Sunday Tribune claims, after a trade union circulated the contact details of all TDs and asked members to lobby them on the proposed cut, which was passed by the Dáil on Friday.

After the vote, however, many ministers received “aggressive calls and texts, with some of them coming from outside the state”, the Tribune says, saying that the numbers had been posted online afterward and had received unwarranted attention that way.

The barrage of contact led to a number of the ministers, including justice minister Dermot Ahern, changing their mobile phone numbers in order to avoid the barrage of public criticism.

Opposition TDs and MEPs also received contact.

The Tribune says a source from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said that while it was not “appropriate” for some of the numbers to have been distributed, all of the numbers distributed were work numbers which were funded by the taxpayer.

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