Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Okay, I will withdraw it. Misinformation is being spread when we could have focused on education elements of the Bill.

It is regrettable that the Government will not accept our amendment - due to a charge on the Exchequer - around education for people in fourth year in secondary schools on what a hate crime and hate speech are. When we know better, we do better and prevention is better than intervention. My colleagues, Senators Ward and Higgins, and I do not want to tell people they have committed a hate crime and lock them up. It is about education and learning from one another within Irish society. I will put my hands up and say this legislation is not ideal and we could do more on definitions and so forth.

I want people to be aware that the part on hate speech has been removed from the Bill. Even though some people spent hours talking about hate speech in the Chamber this evening, hate speech has been removed from the Bill. Section 29 deals with social media and multitech companies. I have been a victim many times of hate crime on social media where I have been called names because of my identity. I was spat at walking down the street almost two years ago, not because I am a politician, but because of my identity. There are no protections for people from the Traveller community, people of colour or transgender people in Irish society. Therefore, a half loaf of bread is better than no loaf of bread. This is not ideal legislation and it needs a lot more work, but as I said earlier, I welcome it.

On the fun and games, when we have guests in the Public Gallery who represent organisations and they are being insulted, it is not fair. While I am a proud Member of this House, it makes me a little bit disappointed in the behaviour of some of our Senators. It is regrettable that Senator Higgins and I could not speak on our amendments on the definition and education. The Coalition Against Hate Crime has asked for a report on whether this legislation is working and to have adequate information on the impact of hate crime in our society.

It has to be proved. It is like any other crime; it must be proved that a crime was a hate crime, motivated by hatred. Everyone knows that. I want to put people at ease about this legislation, that it is not just that people will be told they committed a hate crime. As the Minister said and anyone can read in the Bill, it has to be proved that a person committed a hate crime. I do not want people to be scared.

As a mother of two little girls, I absolutely welcome as much education as possible in our education system around gender. To use children as a weapon, as has been done in this House this evening, is absolutely appalling. I say that as a mother of two children. I am a member of the Traveller community. We have different cultural beliefs than people from the general population. Still, within our community there are a lot of barriers for Traveller women.Traveller women rarely speak openly about issues that impact them - menopause, CervicalCheck, etc. We still tend to keep many things private in the Traveller community. We are a very Catholic, religious community.

I say as a Traveller mother of two children that I welcome education of our children in schools and regret Senator Mullen using a lot of his time to speak about how we are educating our children. Education is the key for our kids and we have to keep embedding education in our children. So what if we are talking about stuff that is not very comfortable in a Catholic sense or in the sense of the Traveller community? I will include my own community as well. It is important we educate our children. What these people are making out-----