Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week, yet again, a local representative, a county councillor, was racist towards Travellers on local radio.This was around Traveller accommodation. Some of my Fianna Fáil colleagues have come to speak to me about it and about how disappointed they were to see this kind of behaviour. I know the Taoiseach has also expressed his disappointment in this behaviour.

It is important for all local county councillors to not come out publicly with racist comments. You cannot be racist any more in this country; it is not acceptable and should not be acceptable. When I talk about being publicly racist, what I mean is that we are all prejudiced and we are all human beings who can be prejudiced but when you come out and target one group of people, perhaps based on their sexuality, identity or background, what you are then is racist. I do not need to educate people in this room because over the past two years, we have educated each other. We are changing, including in our political system, and we are changing as a society.

My ask today is that we see where we are with good hate crime legislation that also stands for local authorities, county and city councillors, Deputies and Senators etc. I am not asking for this right now but I would appreciate it if even in the next month or two, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, would come in and tell us where the hate crime legislation is. There is a great level of racism and hatred in this country, including online and especially towards the Traveller community. Unfortunately the racism towards our community has been normalised and there is a sense that it is okay because they are just the Travellers. I thank my Fianna Fáil colleagues because five or six years ago, we would not have had that media attention and that shows me our relationships are changing and we are changing. I would appreciate it if we could have that debate and I am again calling on the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, to come into the House and give us an update on ending direct provision. Where are we on that?