Mr. Martin Collins:

Dr. Haynes made reference to research which found that a significant percentage of respondents were repulsed by having somebody living beside them who engaged in a hate-motivated attack. I do not want to set up any kind of hierarchy of oppression or exclusion, but I have no doubt that if that data was desegregated by ethnicity we would get a very different picture in respect of the Traveller community. I do not think we would get the same level of repulsion because other reports suggest that in the region of 90% of the population would not want a Traveller family living beside them, would not want a Traveller marrying into their family, etc. That is not in any way to set up a hierarchy of oppression, but rather to reflect the reality that my community experiences on the island of Ireland.

As already stated, I am not a an academic or human rights lawyer, but when I hear people speak, it is clear that there is a fundamental question emerging that needs to be answered and that competing rights need to be reconciled between victims of hate speech and crime and perpetrators. It is important to remind ourselves in this context of the purpose of the proposed legislation. First and foremost, the priority has to be to protect marginalised communities that are vulnerable to hate speech and crime. The rights of perpetrators have to be respected and taken into account, but, first and foremost, our primary concern and that of the proposed legislation is to protect vulnerable communities from hate speech and crime.