Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Following on from what Senator Boyhan stated, I am also of the view that the issue of hate crime is extremely important. Several years ago, I worked with the Trinity College Dublin anti-bullying centre and others on the issue of hate crime. We were involved in a joint project with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation in England. The latter was set up because a young girl called Sophie Lancaster was kicked to death for being a Goth. Her mother set up the foundation and pursued politicians in Britain to introduce legislation to cover hate crime. We have a lot to learn from what happened there. When the project to which I refer was ongoing, we engaged in exchanges but then all of the funding was cut from community development projects. We also did work in respect of suicide prevention with the PIPS Charity in the North. As a result of that exchange, we learned about the anti-bullying kit that can be used within schools to address the issue of hate crime and make young children aware of difference and of celebrating it and not excluding people based on how they dress, how they are or in the context of whatever they decide to do.

I would be interested in working with Senator Boyhan on this matter because some advances have already been made. I commend Dr. Stephen Minton from the Trinity College Dublin anti-bullying centre who worked with us to have a whole-community response to bullying. If we are to tackle bullying and hate crime, we need such a response. There are limitations to just having one element to the response, whether it be via the Garda, schools or whatever. It has to be everywhere within the community and there has to be zero tolerance to bullying and hate crime.

I had intended to talk about something very different. I had originally intended to ask the Leader if the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy English, could come before the House to clarify the situation with the pyrite redress scheme? There is much ambiguity and confusion regarding how households can access the scheme so perhaps the Minister of State might come here and clarify the matter.