Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2022-11-10
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Joe Flaherty (FF), Longford-Westmeath

I commend my colleague Senator O'Loughlin on her work on earlier iterations of this Bill in 2016 and in 2020. It is a sad reality of modern Ireland that hate crime is a real and lasting problem. Ireland has become one of the most diverse and inclusive societies in recent decades. Irish people of different races and religions, Irish Travellers, LGBTQ people and persons with disabilities have all become much more visible and engaged in our communities throughout Ireland. This diversity is now a core strength and one we must all work together to encourage and expand. There is no place where this is better reflected nowadays than in rural Ireland, especially in my area in County Longford where per capita we have one of the largest numbers of new Irish communities, all of whom are thriving and making a vast difference to a modern, inclusive and progressive county. We would like to think in Longford that we are a richer and much more vibrant society as a result of all these new people and new cultures that have come to join us.
Sadly, not everybody has welcomed these changes. In fact, some people see this very strength as a threat and are willing to engage in verbal or physical violence in order to continue the perpetration of exclusion. It is simply unacceptable in modern Ireland that anybody should be the victim of a crime simply because of their skin colour, country of origin, asylum status, religion, disability or sexual identity. The current legislation on hate crime is no longer fit for purpose and needs to be modernised. The Bill is an important step in fulfilling two commitments made in the programme for Government: to introduce hate crime legislation and to update the prohibitions in the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989. The Government is committed to ensuring the Bill is signed into law before the end of the year. As a Government Deputy, I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Bill. I commend the Minister on her work in bringing this to the floor of the House, and on doing so in such a timely fashion. I want to share my remaining time with my learned colleague.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-11-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:16+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-11-10