Hate crime legislation to be brought to Cabinet in April

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee outside Government Buildings as she published the findings of the hate crime public consultation, which was carried out by the Department of Justice. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Draft legislation to criminalise hate crime and hate speech will be brought to the Cabinet next April, according to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.

The minister was speaking at the launch of a
report on hate crime in which many of those who participated spoke of experiencing bigotry, hate speech and hate crimes on public transport, in public places, online, in education, in the health and policing services and in political speech.
Public consultation took place from last November until January of this year and the report on the findings, including recommendations for the new legislation, was published on Thursday.

It found the Prohibition of Incitement To Hatred Act from 1989 was not effective in dealing with incitement to hatred, and should be replaced by a single piece of legislation to deal with both incitement to hatred and hate crime. 

Ms McEntee said the new legislation would be clearer and allow for easier prosecution. 

Today I launched the findings of the @DeptJusticeIRL consultation on Hate Speech and Hate Crime, which is an important step in the process of reforming and updating our laws in this area. You can read the document here 👉 https://t.co/gtOWIWekAa pic.twitter.com/KiUuulhssA

— Helen McEntee TD (@HMcEntee) December 17, 2020

The report said the characteristics protected by the new legislation should include those listed in the 1989 Act, which are race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origins, membership of the Travelling community, and sexual orientation. 

However, it recommended that gender, gender expression or identity, and disability be included as a protected characteristic in the new law.

The new offences of incitement to hatred should also prohibit people from deliberately or recklessly inciting hatred against a person or group due to their association with a protected characteristic. 

The report also said crimes relating to displaying or distributing material that incites hatred should include the online sphere.  

🤬 Hate Speech can lead to hate crime. Today @HMcEntee launches findings of consultation that received over 3.6k submissions that will lead to new hate crime laws in Ireland.

⚖️ Legislation is now being developed.

For report 👉 https://t.co/brLrW1hDp4 pic.twitter.com/LHcie8JWx4

— Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (@DeptJusticeIRL) December 17, 2020

Where there is a separate criminal act such as assault, hatred such as racism and homophobia should be allowed to be considered by the judge and jury as a motivating factor in the crime. However, the report says juries should still be able to find the defendant guilty of the criminal act, even if they didn't find the act was motivated by hate. 

The report also recommends that it shouldn't be necessary to prove other people in the vicinity were actually influenced by the incitement to hatred, or persuaded to act upon it. 

Ms McEntee said it had become clear from the consultation that people were afraid to go about their daily life because of their lived experience of experiencing a hate crime, or out of fear. 

"There was one older gentleman who wouldn't go outside of a certain parameter from his home, he was afraid to use public transport. 

We had another young woman whose daughter didn't want her to pick her up from school, because she was from the Roma community, and she didn't want her friends to see and [was worried about] what they might say or think.

"We had a lecturer who explained how one of their colleagues was homophobic, and started a campaign against them, inciting others against that person."