Irish legislation is inadequate: Are hate crimes on the rise?

Emily Logan, chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, believes Ireland is deficient in addressing hate crime.

Her assessment is based on a report launched yesterday, which reveals that Ireland has one of the highest rates of hate crime against people of African background and transgender people in the EU.

The authors of Lifecycle of a Hate Crime: Country Report for Ireland point to the absence of any laws here against hate crime and say this has led to a “policy vacuum”.

They are right in principle, but wrong in fact.

The Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989, makes it an offence to create or distribute racist, homophobic, or other discriminatory materials.

One problem is that, since its enactment, only five convictions have been recorded.

The other is that it fails to tackle the everyday, oppressive and damaging effect on those who fall victim to hate crime.

Some people object to the notion of introducing such laws, deeming it akin to “thought crime”, a term popularised in the dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell.

A hate crime may begin with a hateful thought, but it is only when it manifests itself as an act of violence or unacceptable discrimination, prejudice or bias, that it is subject to the criminal justice system.

The current legislation is not fit for purpose.

We need a more specific law, at a time when racist incidents are on the rise.