Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy said, it is really important that we send a strong signal to those who wish to commit these crimes that they will not be tolerated. It is not just focused on crimes but also on incitement to hate. This is where a person, be it verbally, online, in print or in any other type of media actively seeks to incite hatred against another individual or group of people simply because of who they are, because of their race, religion, colour of skin, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic.

We have a law that has been in place since 1989. Unfortunately, it does not really work. It has not resulted in many convictions and the Garda has pointed out it is cumbersome and difficult to implement. We are essentially retracting that legislation, building on it and improving it particularly when it comes to speech and incitement to hate. We are now adding this additional avenue of hate crime. While the Judiciary have previously taken that into account, it was never recorded and was never on the Statute Book. It is very important that we are doing that now.

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