Dáil debates

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

Priority Questions

Proposed Legislation

2:00 pm

Photo of Jonathan O'BrienJonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 64: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to update and consolidate legislation regarding crimes that are racially or ethnically motivated; and the steps he has taken to combat racism here. [14331/12]

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Under our criminal law, it is an offence, inter alia, to use words, to publish or distribute written material, or to broadcast any visual images or sounds that are threatening, abusive or insulting and are intended or, having regard to all the circumstances, are likely to stir up hatred. The word "hatred" is defined as "hatred against a group of persons in the State or elsewhere on account of their race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origins, membership of the travelling community or sexual orientation". All of these offences are contained in a single enactment, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989. The State's prosecutorial authorities have not brought to my notice any difficulties in bringing prosecutions under the 1989 Act.

Where criminal offences such as assault, criminal damage or public order offences are committed with a racist motive, they are prosecuted as generic offences through the wider criminal law. The trial judge can take aggravating factors, including racial motivation, into account at sentencing. In all the circumstances, I do not believe there is a need for consolidation of legislation or any other legislative initiatives in this area.

With regard to combating racism through other means, many of the initiatives which were instigated through the National Action Plan against Racism 2005-2008 continue to be developed and progressed through the support and work of the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration. For example, an arts and culture strategy and an intercultural education strategy were launched in September 2010, and a workplace diversity strategy is ongoing.

The focus now is on implementation of sectoral strategies. The Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration continues to work with many sectors, for example, An Garda Síochána, local authorities, sports bodies, Departments, the social partners and broader civil society, including cultural and ethnic minorities, to further progress the integration and diversity management agenda.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Let me pick just a few examples of recent anti-racism initiatives. Substantial funding has been provided to local authorities around the country. The funding supports local programmes that educate the public on issues such as immigration, integration and anti-racism. For instance, Dublin City Council ran an anti-racism campaign on the Dublin transport system in 2010 and 2011 using funding provided by the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration. Similarly, that office funded a non-governmental organisation called Show Racism the Red Card to run a creative competition for school children in 2010 and 2011. Funding has been also provided to the Holocaust Educational Trust for educational initiatives that teach children the dangers of racism and the importance of integration and tolerance.

The criminal law, on its own, is not sufficient to address racism. Other interventions are equally, if not more, important. The non-legislative actions I have mentioned represent substantial investment in social and educational measures and have the potential to reap greater dividends than criminal law measures.

Photo of Jonathan O'BrienJonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister stated judges can take aggravating factors, including racial motivation, into account when sentencing. However, one of the issues that arises is that they do not have to do so. This needs to be resolved. Leaving it to the discretion of the judge is a mistake.

Do we know the number of people who have been prosecuted under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 and the number of racially motivated crimes reported to the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration?

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is correct that judges have discretion but, in determining sentencing with regard to any crime once there is a conviction, a judge should take into account the overall background circumstances. Certainly, where there are aggravating circumstances, be they related to a racist motive, incitement to hatred or other matters, one would expect the Judiciary to take them into account. However, the Judiciary is independent and exercises a discretion based on the overall circumstances of the case as to what type of sentence to impose. It would be particularly difficult in legislation to delineate one particular matter - racism - as an aggravating factor and not to delineate a broad range of others. I am sure Deputy O'Brien could, in a few moments, think of a number of other aggravating circumstances in the perpetration of a crime. Therefore, unless we are going to enact legislation that tries, in a Schedule, to delineate every possible combination and permutation of aggravating circumstances, there is a difficulty.

I have detailed statistics and will furnish a copy of them to the Deputy in writing. I will give him a flavour of them by outlining the numbers of reported racist crimes in each year in the period 2003 to 2010: 2003, 64; 2004, 68; 2005, 100; 2006, 173; 2007, 214; 2008, 172; 2009, 128; and 2010, 122. I have statistics on what I would describe as racist incidents broken down into various categories for each of these years, covering everything from minor assault to assault causing harm and offences under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act. I will make those statistics available to the Deputy.

Photo of Jonathan O'BrienJonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. I understand what he said about aggravating circumstances and taking that into account. He used words in his reply such as "should", expect" and "can". When it comes to racism, however, there can be no exceptions. It needs to be one of the factors taken into account in sentencing. The State's response to the UPR, universal periodic review, recommendations stated it would be unconstitutional to introduce sentencing guidelines for racially motivated crimes. Was this on the advice of the Attorney General?

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The response was based on the appropriate response for the Government to make in consultation with various Departments. I want to make it absolutely clear that there is no acceptance of racism, nor should there be, by any of us in this State, the Government or on the Opposition side. We do not want racism in our country and neither do we want people engaging in it. The very essence of the citizenship ceremony is a public indication of the extent to which we as a society want to embrace as part of our Irish community those who have come to this country from other countries.

This Government will not tolerate racism. If it is the view that some legislation is required to strengthen our laws in this area, legislation will be enacted. One of the most effective measures to counter racism is education and engagement in the very heart of those communities in which there are people from various backgrounds and nationalities living. The simple continued enactment of more criminal law is not the solution. The armoury is there in our criminal legislation to prosecute those who engage in incitement to hatred.

Photo of Michael KittMichael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Minister.

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Other legislation can be utilised, for example, as detailed in the reply, in circumstances of assault.

There will be no tolerance of racism. Both the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and I will continue to do what we can do within our remit to ensure racism, so far as it can be stamped out, is stamped out. Other Departments and various civil society bodies have an important role to play in educating people to recognise the value and importance of cultural diversity. Much of that is already happening in our school system. Good work is being done at both primary and secondary level in those areas.