Mr. Deaglán Ó Briain:

I could not possibly disagree with anything Deputy Durkan said but I believe two issues arise. It is worth teasing out again the point that Mr. Crabit made. The European Union has a framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia by means of the criminal law. It requires member states to have hate crime legislation. The Union also has anti-discrimination legislation. If a member state fails to put the two legislative codes in place, the Commission has the power to launch infringement proceedings. That is part of run-of-the-mill monitoring and compliance.

Let us consider what the rule of law framework deals with. We have had relevant incidents here in this regard. It is not that the member state has not applied the law properly or that it is being broken. The framework deals with circumstances in which the political system tolerates or encourages racist discourse. That is a threat to the fundamental values of the European Union and the neighbours of the member state in question. Therefore, it is a matter of determining whether a problem is systemic and whether the member state is dealing with it. If it is systemic and the member state is not dealing with it, the Commission has the additional procedure, which it hA published, for dealing with the matter.

On a point of information, the framework decision on dealing with racism and so on via the criminal law is being reviewed in terms of implementation. The Commission has indicated it is reviewing all member states, including Ireland, and examining domestic legislation to ensure the framework decision on criminal law has been transposed properly. This will be happening, if it has not already commenced, in the course of this year.