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 the Minister and her officials on the Bill. As I have said, we are a much better society for the changes we have seen. We have seen a radical change in Ireland over the past 20 to 30 years. This is very evident in our schools, communities and sports clubs. In County Longford and in Longford town, we have companies with diverse workforces. There can be anything up to 17 nationalities working on the factory floor. All of these people live in the town, contribute to the town and make it a much more vibrant place to be. They are fiercely proud of their nationality. They are extremely proud that they have found a home, employment and a future for themselves and their families here in Ireland. As Irish people, we are aware that we travelled all over the world. We were welcomed in the UK, we were welcomed in Australia and we were welcomed in America. It behoves us to extend the hand of friendship that met countless generations of our people from the time of the Irish Famine when we went in our coffin ships with little other than destitution to accompany us. We found homes and we found opportunity on far-flung shores. As a society, it behoves us always to be a warm and embracing country for anybody who wishes to come and join us.
Unfortunately, the advent of social media has made hate crime and verbal abuse much easier to perpetrate. It is often done under the obvious cover of darkness but behind a keyboard, and all too often with anonymous accounts. It is a piece of work in itself to try to come to terms with that, and I am aware the Minister is working on it. We have seen a shift in society in this country where people believe it is much more acceptable to harangue and abuse people and encourage others to do so. It is the ugly dimension that is emerging in our society and one that all political parties need to stand up to, whether they are on the left or on the right.
We may differ on many things but one thing we should never disagree on is the fundamental right of everybody to have a fair, equal and decent life in this country of ours. It is particularly evident in the progress we have been making in our schools. We see the diversity right across all of our schools. Even in our most rural schools we are seeing this diversity now. Children are growing up not knowing any differentiation in people. They are ready and willing to embrace alternative cultures and alternative lifestyles. The great educators in many respects have been the young people. They have brought this message home to their family homes the length and breadth of the country. They have played a huge part in this process, and have probably played just as much a role as this legislation is now playing.
It is important that this is seen for what it is. It is landmark legislation but it is also setting an example for the rest of Europe. This is very important. In the short lifetime of this Government so far, on several occasions we have been prepared and willing to grapple with the big issues of the day. We have been willing to prepare landmark legislation and bring it to the floor of this House. This is very much an example of such legislation. When the Minister was appointed to her role, she said that this was one of the key planks of legislation she wanted to bring to fruition in the lifetime of the Government. I am happy that the Minister will meet her timeline and that we will have the legislation on the Statute Book before the end of this year. That in itself is a momentous achievement and will hopefully be one of many defining footnotes in the Minister's long political history.

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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