James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy McEntee, I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I know it is one that concerns him deeply.

The mission of the Department of Justice and Equality is the delivery of a safe, fair and inclusive Ireland. The Minister is fully committed to the fight against racism and prejudice and to a fairer, safer Ireland for everyone who lives here. The programme for Government commits to introducing legislation within 12 months to address those who target victims because of their association with a particular identity characteristic and to revise and update the Incitement to Hatred Act 1989. The Department is already working as a priority to develop this new legislation, which will deal with both incitement to hatred and hate crime. The Minister hopes to bring forward and publish legislative proposals by the end of this year or at the latest by early 2021.

A public consultation was completed in January of this year on the issues involved. The Department received over 3,800 written responses, including around 175 detailed written submissions, which were welcome. This information will help to ensure the laws proposed are robust and effective within an Irish context. The Department has also completed comparative research on different approaches to hate crime legislation in other jurisdictions. Reports on the public consultation and the research will be published in the near future.

There is existing law in this area. The Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 prohibits certain forms of threatening, abusive or insulting conduct. In addition, in sentencing for criminal offences, a hate motive may be considered by the court to be an aggravating factor resulting in a stronger penalty. However, this has clearly not been sufficient to respond to crimes where a victim is targeted because of the perpetrator's hatred of a particular identity characteristic, such as religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity, for example.

Legislation alone is not sufficient to address the problems of hatred and bigotry. A key action in the fight against racism in Ireland has been the formation of the anti-racism committee. The committee, chaired by Professor Caroline Fennell of University College Cork, UCC, is tasked with reviewing current evidence and practice and making recommendations to the Government on how best to strengthen its approach to tackling racism in all its forms. The committee held its first meeting in June and met again at the end of August. It will provide an interim report by the end of November and I am sure we all look forward to seeing the results of its work in due course. With these and a range of other actions, concrete steps are being taken to tackle what are serious and long-standing concerns. I know the Minister hopes she can count on the Deputy's input and support when she brings forward legislative proposals on this important issue.

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