Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Free speech is not free speech if there is a cost and a victim at the end of it. In saying that, I am responding to Senator Keogan's remarks. Hate crimes are message crimes. They are intended to target entire communities. The victims are targeted because of their identity. The impact goes beyond the individual. There is also an impact on communities and on society. We need to send a strong message that we will absolutely not tolerate hate crime or hate speech. My party certainly supports this motion. We appreciate the Minister bringing it before us as we appreciate that she has prioritised legislation on hate crime here within our own country. We have been consistent advocates in the area of hate crime. I have twice introduced legislation in this regard, once in the Dáil and once in the Seanad, over the past five years.

It is important to commend the President of the European Commission, Dr. von der Leyen, on her initiative with regard to extending the list of EU crimes to include hate speech and hate crime, which she outlined in her 2020 state of the Union speech. It has been awful to see the rise of hate speech and hate crime right across Europe. It is a particularly serious and worrying phenomenon, both offline and online. There is no doubt that we need common EU action to tackle this challenge.

Ireland is behind the curve in that we are one of the last countries in the western world to legislate in this area. There is no doubt that there is an urgent need for progressive and rigorous hate crime legislation in our system because, in its absence, we are leaving vulnerable groups, such as those from ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and members of the LGBT community, without proper protection. We acknowledge and welcome the work the Minister has been doing and the work of the Joint Committee on Justice in this area. The fact that we do not have the stringent hate crime legislation that is needed is not reflective of the reality of life in modern Ireland. The theme of this year's International Women's Day was breaking the bias and we are still within that week. If the harm of hate is to be acknowledged and countered, it falls to us as legislators to act to provide a legislative framework for the explicit naming of bias crime. We have to join with other nations in ensuring that the violence of hate experienced by vulnerable individuals and communities is met head-on.

The reasons people have been attacked on the grounds of their identity are diverse in nature but they share one commonality; the victims of hate crime are targeted because of their identity. We need to do absolutely everything we can to stop that because diversity in our country is a strength but, sadly, not everybody has welcomed that strength or the changes we have experienced. Some people see diversity as a threat to themselves and are willing to engage in violence to maintain exclusion. The Minister has provided an example but there are plenty around. I commend and support today's motion and the work the Minister is doing in this area.