Irish Examiner View: We must protect minority groups from being targeted with hate crime

Justice Minister Helen McEntee's hate legislation has been in the making for what appears to be an inordinately long period of time.

Assaults and killings this week have put Justice Minister Helen McEntee and her proposed hate-crime legislation centre-stage. Picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

The recent spate of violent crime, and especially those involving the LGBT+ community, has increased the pressure on Justice Minister Helen McEntee to bring her long-awaited hate crime bill before the Dáil. 

Assaults and killings this week alone have spread fear in society at large, but particularly among the LGBT+ population, who seem to have been increasingly targeted.

In fairness to Ms McEntee, she has become the focus for critics because the proposed hate legislation has been in the making for what appears to be an inordinately long period of time, and she now finds herself centre-stage, coping with a wave of crime which directly encapsulates the meaning of ‘hate crime’.

She has promised to get her legislation to Cabinet and then before the Dáil in as short a period as possible, and she is probably unlucky that events have caught up with her in the manner in which they have.

However, the concern is that perpetrators of crimes involving prejudice, hate, or discrimination have to be made aware that not alone are their actions, be they petty or murderous, will be treated differently by the courts, but will also be defined by higher sentences.

Ours is a largely equitable country, but we cannot have minority groups being singled out by individuals or cabals of those for whom hate is a raison d’etre.