A Green Party councillor in Cork believes an arson attack on his home overnight was attempted murder.
Chris O'Leary, from the Mahon area of Cork city, believes the attack - the most recent of several in recent years - was connected to his campaigning against anti-social behaviour in the locality.
He said today that he and his family were lucky to have survived after the front hall of their home was engulfed by flames and noxious smoke after the front door and porch of his home were set alight.
Mr O'Leary, his wife and 12-year-old daughter were treated for smoke inhalation after the attack which happened at around 3.30am.
"I heard something and got the smell of burning. I came down the stairs to find the porch engulfed in flames and house filled with fumes. I rushed back upstairs to my family, rang 999, came back down through the thick smoke and made it to the garden," Mr O'Leary said.
The windows of his house and car have been damaged on several occasions in the past two years by stones and bricks.
Mr O'Leary was elected to Cork County Council for the first time in the 2004 local elections and is a well-known activist against anti-social behaviour.
"There are wars going on in communities across the country. Communities are being engulfed by hooligans and anti-social behaviour. People are being consistently intimidated," Mr O'Leary added.
Party leader Trevor Sargent said the attack was an attempt "to silence somebody with the courage and the democratic mandate to speak out on behalf of people who have also been intimidated".
Mr O'Leary is the second party councillor whose home was attacked this year.
In February, gardaí were called in to investigate an explosion outside the home of Green Party deputy leader Mary White near Thomastown, Co Carlow.
A gas cylinder surrounded by tyres was set alight outside her house in the most serious of several attacks on her home.
The Carlow county councillor believed the attacks were connected to her campaign against anti-social behaviour, illegal dumping and quad racing on scenic Mount Leinster.
Ms White today said: "These thugs will not jeopardise our commitment to safer communities in which we have been elected to protect."