Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Hate speech and hate crime really have a ripple effect. The fear and anxiety caused by crimes resonate through communities and through generations. Targeting people on the basis of their identity sends a message to every other person in that community that they are not safe and they do not belong. It undermines the core values we strive for in society of equality, diversity and inclusion, and it undermines the fundamental right of everyone to be treated with dignity and respect.

I welcome the decision of the EU to begin the process of forming a common legal framework to combat hate speech and hate crime and welcome the Government's commitment to supporting it. However, any final agreement in the EU will be as a result of a consensus with countries such as Poland and Hungary, whose governments have relentlessly pursued minority groups such as the LGBT community over recent years. Our domestic legislation can be stronger and can go further. I know the Minister has drafted the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill which is at pre-legislative scrutiny stage. I hope it will be prioritised in the Government's coming legislative programme once the programme has been completed.

We are one of the few western democracies that does not have any legislation that targets the hate element of crime. Introducing strong legislation on hate crime and hate speech, in consultation with minority groups, will be a public statement by this country that we do not tolerate that kind of behaviour. It would send a message that there are serious consequences for anyone who attacks or terrorises individuals and communities for who they are. We all know there are many things that happen that are categorised as antisocial behaviour but which are much more than antisocial behaviour. These kinds of crimes very often fall into that category.

The absence of hate crime legislation in Ireland has not sent a good message. Hate crime has an horrific impact on victims. Direct impacts range from physical injury to lasting emotional and psychological harm. Victims of hate crime are twice as likely to suffer anxiety, depression, a loss of confidence and feelings of vulnerability in comparison with other victims of crime.

That is because hate crime is not random but is purposeful and directed at someone's identity. The perpetrators want the victim to be scared, to feel the other and to feel less themselves. One account in the Irish Council for Civil Liberties report, Life Cycle of a Hate Crime, demonstrates how damaging an effect these crimes can have. It states:

I was working with a mother last year whose son was abused by [a] neighbour physically, verbally, they suffered property damage – spray paint on the house. The child tried to kill himself twice. He poured detergent over his skin because he thought it would make him white.

We cannot properly combat discrimination of any kind unless we know the basic facts of where it is happening and how prevalent it is. We do not have any official data on the prevalence of hate crime in Ireland. The Garda records discriminatory motives for crime on the PULSE system but these data are not publicly released and we have no idea how accurate they are. The data we have show some worrying trends. The Irish Network Against Racism has collected reports of racist incidents for years on iReport.ie. The latest report in 2020 found 159 criminal incidents, a record 51 racist assaults and a record 334 hate speech incidents. There were a total of 700 incidents, up from 530 in 2019. I suspect that is a significant understatement of the problem.

Over recent years during Covid, forces have aligned and some of the things we are concerned about have been heightened. Undoing that will be a question of understanding the prevalence. For people to appreciate they are participating in a crime will be important in making a public statement. We support this initiative and hope the legislation will come through pre-legislative scrutiny quickly so we have something tangible on the Statute Book.

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