Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

I want to dispute the Deputy's categorisation of my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, in terms of her role in the previous Government. It was the policy of the previous Government and the previous Government made a decision to change that policy. It is unfair of the Deputy to focus on her individually.

In regard to challenging hate speech, it is important to point out that, as I said earlier, simply because there is not new legislation being put in place does not mean there is not legislation in place. Since 1989 we have had the Prohibition of Incitement To Hatred Act. It exists in our law. We have a common law that provides for circumstances where aiding and abetting of criminal offences is also a criminal offence. The law covers this area.

I also make the point that there is a responsibility on all of us to try to challenge hate speech. Although hate speech may not result in everyone being brought before the courts, we should be able to ensure that we do not tolerate people engaging in hate speech which is designed to undermine or upset others. There are two ways of looking at this. We can look at it from the strict legal point of view or from a societal point of view. From the latter point of view, we should certainly all be challenging hate speech.

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