Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 17 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021: Discussion

Photo of James LawlessJames Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for joining us. They are all most welcome. I remind all members and witnesses to turn of their mobile phones or place them in flight mode. While they might not appear to be causing a disturbance, they can still interfere with the sound system, which sometimes does not become apparent until after the meeting. We have received apologies from Senator Martin. A few others who are not presently at the table may be along in due course.

The purpose of our meeting is to engage with a number of stakeholders, all of whom made written submissions - and I thank them for doing so - on the general scheme of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021. Witnesses are appearing virtually before the committee today from a location outside the Leinster House precinct. This is part of the new hybrid arrangement that we are all getting used to whereby some members are in the building and witnesses are outside, but we are all connected online.

I again welcome our witnesses. We are joined by the following representatives: Dr. Seamus Taylor, head of the Department of Applied Social Studies, Maynooth University; Mr. Martin Collins, co-director, and Ms Jenny Liston, Roma programme co-ordinator, Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre; Ms Fiona Finn, CEO, and Ms Fiona Hurley, policy and communications manager, Nasc; Dr. Jennifer Schweppe, co-director, and Dr. Amanda Haynes, co-director, European Centre for the Study of Hate. From the Department of Justice, which has permanent observer status at our meetings, we are joined by Ms Kate Flynn, administrative officer, and Mr. John Garry, principal officer, both of whom are with the criminal justice legislation unit.

I have already mentioned people's own devices. As housekeeping for these Zoom calls, if you are speaking, make sure that your device is not muted so that your contribution is heard. If you are not speaking, make sure that your device is muted so that we do not hear papers rustling or dogs barking in the background.

I ask witnesses to be aware of parliamentary privilege and practice. This is of particular note for witnesses, who are off the Leinster House campus at present due to the nature of the engagement and the times that we are in, so they may not enjoy the same degree of privilege with their statements as they would if they were physically on campus. I ask them to be mindful of that when making their statements. If anything potentially defamatory is said, I will direct them to discontinue and it is imperative that they do so. I ask members to be aware of the long-standing parliamentary practice and traditions, especially with the extra risk to witnesses and the committee arising from remote attendance.

Each organisation will be invited to make an opening statement. We have allocated three minutes per opening statement. It seems to work. The witnesses will have plenty of time to speak again over the course of the engagement. Once all of the statements have been delivered, I will invite members of the committee to put their questions. There will be seven minutes per member for both questions and responses, and they manage that time as they wish. If a member wishes to have a long opening preamble, speaking for five minutes with two minutes for responses, that is fine, and if they want to ask questions for 30 seconds and allow six and a half minutes for responses, that is also fine. When everybody has spoken once, if time allows, we might have a second round, which will be shorter. I know there is some detail in the opening statements that have been sent to us, so I inform witnesses that I will enforce the three minute rule for their opening statements, but they will have the opportunity to speak again as the engagement goes on.

We will start with Dr. Taylor. I welcome him and look forward to hearing what he has to say.

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