Hate crimes ‘must be coded in law’

Rights groups have renewed calls for hate crime legislation after only 47 incidents were recorded in the first half of the year.

Officially, the number of racist, homophobic, and anti-semitic cases to the end of June is slightly below the last two years, which saw 111 reports for the whole of 2013 and 118 in 2012.

Campaigners claim that Ireland is the only western democracy not to specifically classify hate crime, leaving a massive gap between the records and the reality for minority groups.

Based on Garda data, the Central Statistics Office said there were 40 racially motivated incidents in the first half of the year, six homophobic incidents, and one anti-semitic incident.

Most cases involved minor assaults or public order offences. Last year, there were more than 100 crimes classed by gardaí as hate motivated — 92 racist incidents, 17 homophobic, and two anti-semitic.

University of Limerick law lecturer Jennifer Schweppe said hate crime legislation should cover the nine areas already set down in the State’s equality laws, including disability.

“If we had hate crime legislation, then there would be a reason to record thehate motivation,” she said.

“Ireland is outstanding as being the only western democracy without hate crime legislation.”

The CSO data shows racially motivated crime peaked in 2007, when 215 incidents were put on the Garda Pulse system, while the peak for anti-semitism was 2010, when 13 instances were recorded.

Homophobia peaked in 2009 with 36 offences, withsubsequent years showing 14 incidents in 2010, 21 in 2011, and 18 in 2013.

Among recent hate crimes was the targeting of thenjustice minister Alan Shatter last April, when a photograph of Nazi soldiers andwhite powder, which turned out to be harmless, was sent to his Dublin home. He was also subject to anti-semitic abuse on posters in Limerick last year.

The Irish Integration Centre reported earlier this year, based on studies ofhate crime statistics, that people were 22 times more likely to report racistincidents in England and Wales than in Ireland.

The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen) is planning to further develop this by launching an online homophobic crime recording system in December.

The group’s policy development officer Craig Dwyer said that in Glen’s experience crimes motivated by homophobia were not always recorded as such, and noted that people who were victims of transphobia crimes could not have the incidents properly recorded on Pulse. There are only three classifications on the system. A Garda spokesman said the force regards racist or hate crime as strategicallyimportant.

Ms Schweppe said: “Evidence from abroad tells us there is a link between hate incidents and their escalation into hate crime. If the gardaí can track incidents, they can deal with them appropriately and try to prevent hate crimes occurring.”