Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

In terms of acting in relation to mob intimidation, I do think there could be much stronger measures. I think use should have been made of the public order Act when there was intimidation of asylum seekers in our city centre, in Sandwith Street and in Lower Mount Street.
I look at the long-running attitude of seeing how things will play out in response to the intimidation of asylum-seekers. For far too long there was tolerance of extreme intimidation and threat. There was accommodation of the checking of buses by persons who were effectively vigilantes. That is not okay. We could be doing an awful lot more. We do not need to just look to Belfast. We also need to be much more careful about the dog whistles. I am not going to go into that now but I have heard them come through in subtle ways. There are references to demographic challenges and all the rest. These give a sense of vindication to those who seek to intimidate portions of the population. We should also look to some of the facts we see on the ground, namely, that there is racial profiling and unequal treatment on racial and ethnic bases in policing internationally that have been shown again and again. We went through them when we debated the facial recognition technologies that are going to be introduced and which have been shown to have far lower accuracy rates in these cases. There are issues with this. It is not defending the potential perpetrator, which almost presumes guilt. It is looking to that right to privacy. The Minister will be aware the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission raised concerns about the rights to privacy and protest, as has the ICCL. It is not that you are allowed wear a mask because you have a health condition or are from a religious group. It is that you are allowed to wear a mask and be part of a protest-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02