Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. Senator Ward’s point is good. There might be misinformation about a group of people from a particular country, or all people from a country. One can think of lots of political contexts where that could be used. It might be important. It sometimes happens in academic discourse, whether inadvertently or deliberately, as well as political and social discourse, so it could be important.

It is always interesting for the committee when there are different perspectives on the technicality of law. It is important and I know it is a difficult forum to try to go through some of that. It is interesting that everybody is coming from a point of trying to create the maximum protection for victims and the most enforceable, robust law. I know from my perspective as a spokesperson on equality, having worked with Migrants Rights Centre Ireland and Pavee Point over many years, and having seen the difficulties they face on behalf of their communities. That is where we are all coming from.

I wanted to give Professor Haynes and Dr. Schweppe an opportunity to talk about the research that they had done. I think they said that they found in their research that people would be uncomfortable living next door to somebody who had been convicted of a hate crime. I understand that from the perspective of the person who is convicted. However, it also speaks to how Irish people view the activity of hate-related speech and hate-related crime. Could they give the committee a bit more information on that?

Earlier, Dr. Taylor gave an example from England and Wales. It was helpful in setting the context. It is clearly a different scenario from the one that Senator Ward presented about being a "prat" or a "Welsh prat", as it were. The example Dr. Taylor gave was arguably much more serious. Perhaps Dr. Taylor would like to give the committee another example if there were time.