Ms Jenny Liston:

I thank the Senator for the question. It is as she mapped it out. Pavee Point is in agreement that this legislation cannot exist in a silo. There need to be additional special measures in conjunction with it. For the reasons the Senator mentioned, we know this legislation will only be effective if people come forward to report and are supported through that process. Travellers and Roma often have huge fear and mistrust of authorities, from the Garda through to the Judiciary. How do we address that to make this legislation effective?

We will need measures like, as the Senator mentioned, training on hate crime and hate speech for all professionals involved. We should also look at what other training is needed in conjunction with that, such as anti-racism and anti-discrimination training for gardaí and other professionals involved. If we have a public awareness campaign about the introduction of this legislation, we should consider all the protected categories in its provisions and how we target the public campaign so people are aware. I work on the Roma programme. How do we get this information to people whose first language is not English or who have language and literacy issues? It is about thinking in a more holistic way.

The question was asked earlier about the data we have on the impacts of hate crime and hate speech in Ireland. We do not really have any. As we set this up, we need to think about how we form the baseline data around how this affects the protected categories. Once we have those data, how will we monitor what happens as the legislation is rolled out? What targets can be set? As Dr. Haynes said, I hope it is about reducing the incidences of hate crime, rather than just looking at what happens when somebody is convicted. How do we set targets to reduce these incidences?

I think Mr. Collins mentioned that we are looking at the national action plan against racism that is due to be published. How can we combine the two to make sure there are people with specific responsibility and accountability for how this is looked at and not forget about the institutional and structural racism and discrimination that impacts at every level on how most of these protected categories interact with the law and with most services. There is much work to be done to make sure it is effective.