Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the Minister of State. I will be very brief and concentrate on one area of his contribution: the rule of law. It is a great concern to a number of us on the committee that some members of the European Union have enacted laws that one could almost say were racist in content and that the action of these governments brought their national policy fundamentally into conflict with the EU. I am delighted to hear the Minister of State's views on this and I support the position I presume he will take on the Copenhagen criteria, because we have compelled and continue to compel aspiring members, from Albania to Montenegro, to comply with our definition of the rule of law, yet we have seen events in countries such as Hungary and - although it is not quite a full member - an interesting series of referenda that have taken place in Switzerland which have limited the free movement of labour. Those have sent warning signals to us. We also have the extremely provocative policies advocated by UKIP in the UK. While we will be looking at the rule of law as it applies within the family of the EU, and the Union is very conscious of the growth of hate crimes, xenophobia and other forms of extreme intolerance across member states, is the Minister of State satisfied that Ireland as a single nation within the family of the EU has taken enough steps to prevent the rise of xenophobia and racism?

Does he share any of my concerns that there are obvious signs, for example, most recently in Waterford where Roma families were marched upon? Is our hate crime legislation sufficiently strong at a national level to protect the country's image, which is important? Everyone present would welcome our phenomenal transition from a single ethnic group of white Roman Catholics 30 years ago to a diverse, multicultural and racially complex society in which we have granted citizenship to 60,000 people from 120 nations. Sometimes, we defer to Europe or point to things going wrong in, for example, Switzerland and Hungary, but will the Minister of State assure me he is confident that our beautifully diverse nation is adequately protected by legislation on hate crimes, xenophobia and religious intolerance? Strong allegations have been made of growing religious intolerance between certain faith groups, not least of which relate to the fears expressed about adherents of the Muslim faith at the mosque in Galway. How is it pronounced?