Former Tanaiste Joan Burton says she plans to up security at her home as she reveals she has been burgled several times. Ms Burton told The Star she was “angered” after her home on the Old Cabra Road in Dublin was broken into — while she was at a joint policing meeting on crime. Homeless woman Emma O’Callaghan (43) pleaded guilty to carrying out the burglary at the Labour TD’s home. And Ms Burton — who led the Labour party in the latter half of the 2011-2016 government — reveals her home has been “ransacked” and broken into multiple times, and her parents’ home was also recently burgled. “I’m going to do what I’ve done on other occasions [with security],” she told The Star . “Thankfully we haven’t been burgled for a while but unfortunately I do have a lot of experience with it. “My dad and my stepmum’s house was burgled before Christmas but there was nobody there. That was in the winter. “I’ve had my house ransacked before and it’s an awful feeling. This time there was some stuff moved around but I think because the neighbours were on the case and the guards were on the case it didn’t happen. “So I’m just going to look at security now and see what we can do.” (Photo: PAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images) Deputy Burton said her home was last burgled “six or seven years ago” and back then she had upgraded security at her home. But she says when she first got the call about the break-in last Monday night, she was angered over it. “I suppose the first feeling is the shock and the anger and the second then is relief that nobody was injured or damaged,” she said. She said she doesn’t believe anything was taken from her home thanks to the quick actions of neighbours who alerted her on WhatsApp and dialled 999. “Basically it was a single individual, they may have been around the area, there’s a WhatsApp group in the area and so in fact a very kind neighbour rang 999 and, as it happened, gardai were in the area and they were able to come relatively quickly and the person was apprehended,” Joan explained. Gardai arrested the burglar as she emerged from the Labour TD’s house, which she managed to discreetly break into by removing a pane of glass from a back window after climbing over a side gate. Ms Burton said she was relieved to see her laptop and iPad, which would have been in the view of the person who broke into her home, were not taken. “To be honest, you know I have to go through everything but I can’t see that anything was taken,” she said. Mother-of-two Emma O’Callaghan, of no fixed address, was charged with trespassing at the house on Old Cabra Road, Dublin 7, on July 2 with intent to commit theft last Thursday. Sentencing was adjourned for three weeks.
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