Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said the murder of two men in Sligo has "shocked" local residents and "scared" members of the LGBT community.
Gardai are conducting two separate murder inquiries after the violent deaths of Aidan Moffitt, 42, and Michael Snee, 58, in the town in recent days.
Both men were found dead in their own homes this week having suffered extensive injuries.
READ MORE: Sligo 'serial killer' fears as armed gardai swoop on suspect after two men brutally murdered
Detectives are investigating a potential homophobic motive and have issued safety advice to people using dating apps.
A man remains in custody in Ireland as police investigate the murders of the two men who detectives believe may have met their killer online.
The suspect, in his 20s, was arrested on suspicion of murder after the discovery of Mr Snee’s body in his apartment in Connaughton Road at around 10.30pm on Tuesday.
The man, who was detained in Sligo town at around 1.45am on Wednesday, remains in custody and detectives can question him for a total of 24 hours, excluding breaks.
Gardai are also investigating a third recent incident in the Sligo area as part of the murder investigations.
Speaking about the incidents on Thursday morning, Mr Varadkar said he had known Aidan Moffitt through his activity within Fine Gael as an activist.
The Fine Gael leader extended his condolences to the families of both men and said people in Sligo are "really shocked and really devastated".
"Another man in Sligo was attacked too and has lost his eye so this is really gruesome stuff," Mr Varadkar told Pat Kenny on Newstalk.
"I know people in Sligo are really shocked, the LGBT community is really worried about what this represents and I would encourage anyone to pass on whatever information they have to the gardai even if they don't think it's particularly relevant.
"This is kind of scary, Ireland is a welcoming country for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the main, it is a safe country in which to be a gay person but I think a lot of us had hoped we had put these kind of attacks behind us.
"There was an attack on somebody as well last week on dame street so I don't know if there's a resurgence in homophobia.
"There have been a number of assaults and now these murders too and it's hard to know what's the cause, perhaps it's because we're in a different phase of the pandemic and people are out and about more, there could be a snapback.
"It could also be a backlash against the progress we have made as a country and perhaps in other countries too."
There are a number of things that can be done to address this issue, Mr Varadkar said, both by gardai and the government.
He would like to see an increased presence of gardai on the streets of Ireland's towns and cities.
"We have more gardai than we've ever had before in Ireland, the garda budget is bigger than it's ever been before but I don't think people are seeing more gardai on the streets, particularly at times when they're busy," he said.
As for what the government will do, Mr Varadkar said they plan to strengthen hate crime legislation, while schools and communities need to be encouraged to "be more accepting of the fact that people have their own course in life".
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