Hate crime legislation 'with teeth' to be in place by end of the year

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee told Newstalk that the new legislation is not about infringing on free speech. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/Photocallireland

New hate crime legislation "with teeth" will be in place by the end of the year, the Justice Minister says.

Helen McEntee is aiming to publish the Incitement to Hatred and Hate Crime Bill in September, saying that it will make it easier to secure convictions for crimes where hatred of a protected category such as race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender (including gender expression and identity), and disability was a factor.

However, Ms McEntee said that there was no question the new laws would limit freedom of speech.

“I have to very clear,” she told Newstalk Breakfast. “This is not about infringing on free speech.”

“This is not about people having different ideological views or even insulting another person because of their view or having a different perception of things.

This is where you intentionally incite hatred against another person simply because of who they are.

“So, by insulting them or criticising them alone, that is not enough. Even though it might be offensive, that’s not enough to reach the threshold.”

Ms McEntee said that the laws were necessary because people were being made to feel unsafe purely because of who they are and this should not be tolerated.

“There are people living in this country at this moment in time who are not living their lives as they should simply because of fear,” the minister said.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

“We all have a right to feel safe and to be safe. For somebody to feel unsafe simply because of who they are — their race, their religion, the colour of their skin, their sexual orientation — it’s not a society that I want to live in, and it’s not what we should be tolerating.”

Liam Herrick, Executive Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, which coordinates the Coalition against Hate Crime said that the Government's commitment to hate crime legislation was welcome, but the exact text of the law would need to be seen.

“We had a preference that there would be two pieces of legislation — hate crime and incitement to hatred — so there will be a bit of a challenge in explaining the difference to the public because of the approach the government has taken.

Liam Herrick Executive Director of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties said it had a preference that there would be two pieces of legislation: Hate crime and incitement to hatred. Picture: Gareth Chaney Collins

“It's important to note that the freedom of expression concerns only relate to the incitement part.”

Mr Herrick said that the proposal to have a demonstration test in the legislation has been used in some countries, but others place a higher bar for the prosecution of hate crimes. He added that the committee stage of the legislative process must take in submissions from groups affected.

It's good that the minister is committed to the legislation, but we need to see the actual text.

“Most other countries have required prosecutors to show hate, rather than infer it from something said or done.

“We want to make sure we've enough time to consider and interrogate this legislation. It's particularly important that affected communities get to discuss this with the Oireachtas.”