Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. Last night there was detailed debate in relation to a review of the new Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, legislation. There is no detailed debate here on a review of this legislation. I could go back to the figures on the reporting of hate crime. It is the invisibility of hate crime and the suffering of victims that concerns me. I want to emphasise that what people suffer on the ground as a result of hatred and hate crime is simply intolerable. We need legislation to prevent that, but the balance is essential. We are doing that in a vacuum with no data. One of the documents I read stated that An Garda Síochána published its first official statistics following the introduction of its new reporting system in 2022. It was the first time this was done. The statistics indicated that 389 hate crimes were reported to the Garda during 2021, in addition to 59 non-hate crime incidences, comprising 448 in total. The Garda itself acknowledges that under-reporting is still prevalent. Indeed, the documents I have read call for alternative ways for people to report on what they are suffering. None of this, of course, has happened. Perhaps some of it has happened.

The common theme from everything I have read is that we need a suite of measures to combat hate crime and hate speech, and that this legislation or any legislation is seen as only part of that, and indeed as a last resort. That is not what is happening with this Bill. We are reversing, in part, the burden of proof. We are not protecting freedom of expression, and we are bringing in legislation that is wide open to abuse in terms of the search warrants issued to the Garda and people being targeted on the ground for their views. I will finish by noting that we heard the latest from the priest in County Kerry in the news. In my opinion, counter-narrative is the answer to that. I also note the recent attack on Salman Rushdie, who is still suffering as a result of the book he wrote. Of course, we are also familiar with comments that are more than comments we receive when we dare to speak out on what Israel is doing in Palestine and call it apartheid. We receive letters threatening us for what we are saying. That is all part of this picture. I am over my allotted time, so I will finish there.

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