Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This debate comes not too long after the Joint Committee on Justice's prelegislative scrutiny of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021. At the time, the committee heard that the Bill is an attempt to consolidate all legislation related to crimes motivated by hate. I have listened to what the Minister has said as to how this might affect the Bill and what interaction between domestic and EU law will look like afterwards. Minimum standards regarding crime with cross-border implications makes sense as we are in an increasingly connected world and, as she said, an increasingly diverse society. In addition to Ireland being seen as a tax haven and carbon emissions haven for corporations, there is a risk that we might be perceived as being weak on hate speech on social media. I welcome what the Minister said with regard to the online safety commissioner. I look forward to seeing the minimum standards set out in the motion, which should combat such speech.

At the same time, we must be conscious of the context of speech. This must be advanced in tandem with equality and free speech. Sometimes, people who are fighting for material fairness, for example, with regard to the Palestinian cause, must be taken into account. I reject any notion that standing with oppressed peoples must constitute hate against others. We must be careful not to end up in a worse place as a society by introducing laws in a vacuum.

During the committee's meeting, I raised a number of surveys and statistics. I welcome what the Minister said about her conversation with An Garda Síochána with regard to internal recording. We need more comprehensive data, particularly with regard to sexual violence and other categories of crime. In dealing with the Traveller community, confidence in the justice system is vitally important. We must remember the experiences of the Irish community in England and what they had to deal with. Irish people did not have confidence in the justice system there. Our minority communities and Travellers are in a similar situation and they must have confidence in the justice system here. With regard to data, while I do not advocate following the UK's approach, it is streets ahead of us in respect of data and statistics and we should seek to match it. I look forward to a more in-depth examination of the upcoming Bill and the implications of this motion when the Bill goes to First Stage proper.

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