Irish law ‘not equipped to deal with race crimes’

IRELAND’S criminal law is not equipped to deal with racially motivated crime, it has been suggested.

Experts in the field held discussions in Dublin yesterday on research conducted by Professor Dermot Walsh and Jennifer Schweppe, of the Centre for Criminal Justice, University of Limerick. The authors want reforms to bring Irish criminal law on racism up to international standards.

Lucy Gaffney, of the National Action Plan Against Racism said: “Racially motivated criminal acts instil fear not just in the victim but also in the ethnic community to which the victim is perceived to belong.”