Dr. Des Hogan:

We were recently asked by the Department of Justice and Equality to provide some observations on the recommendation on blasphemy from the Constitutional Convention. Our response was that as a first step, the Prohibition of the Incitement to Hatred Act needs to be urgently reviewed, including the number of prosecutions taken under that, questions of evidential burden and questions of convictions. We would see a need for hate crime to be addressed, which will be something the Irish human rights and equality commission will no doubt look at in due course. In respect of racial profiling, if there was something in the 2005 Act review clearly stating that this is unacceptable and it possibly went into the definition of serious harm or something else that could be captured, there would be a very clear tone set as to what is permissible and what is not.