Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to my amendments and Deputy Howlin's and we can respond to each other. I am pleased to bring the amended Bill back before the Dáil. The Bill completed all Stages in the Seanad last week and I wish to report back to the Dáil the amendments agreed in the Seanad. As Deputies are aware, the Bill originally had two objectives: to update and modernise our existing incitement to hatred laws and to introduce hate crime provisions for the first time in the State. Regrettably, while there was a strong consensus in this House for the incitement to violence or hatred provisions, including proposals from the Opposition to expand the law further, that consensus was lost. I proposed a series of Committee Stage amendments in the Seanad last week to remove the parts of the Bill dealing with the incitement to violence or hatred and to proceed only with the elements dealing with hate crime. These amendments were all agreed.

The amended Bill will deliver on the programme for Government commitment to introduce hate crime legislation for the first time in Ireland. It creates specific offences based on an aggravated offence model to ensure those who target victims because of their association with particular identity characteristics are identified as perpetrators of hate crime. The Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 will remain in force. Incitement to hatred is not being dealt with in the amended Bill, as agreed by Government last month. About half of the amendments proposed in the Seanad were to give effect to the decision to remove the incitement to violence or hatred provisions from the Bill. These have been grouped as outlined by the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Amendments Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, and 21 to 23, inclusive, remove references to incitement to violence or hatred from the Bill. This includes amendments to the Long Title and the Short Title, as provided for in section 1. The Short Title will become the "Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024". Amendments Nos. 10 to 20, inclusive, 64 and 75 involve the deletion of sections 6 to 16, inclusive, which make up Part 2 of the Bill, and of references elsewhere to incitement to violence or hatred and to the EU framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia. The Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 will no longer be repeated, so section 4, which provides for that repeal, will be deleted through amendment No. 9.

Amendments Nos. 6, 7 and 8 are technical amendments that result from the removal of the incitement to violence or hatred provisions. I note Deputy Howlin has submitted an amendment. I look forward to his input to this discussion. As I will outline when we come to it, I will unfortunately be unable to support the amendment for two reasons. The first relates to how it is currently worded, for legal and technical reasons, and the second is because I believe we need to update and address the 1989 Act. The decision I have taken is that would be dealt with separately and we would focus here solely on the hate crime element of the legislation. It would not be appropriate to take some elements and amend part of the 1989 Act. We need to come back to it and address it and it needs to be part of the next government's objectives.

There is a further set of technical and consequential amendments I will discuss when I come to the relevant Part of the Bill. Those arise because of the enactment of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023, which amended certain provisions that are also being amended by this Bill. The newly amended and titled Bill will create new aggravated forms of certain existing criminal offences or hate crimes, where those offences are motivated by hatred of a protected characteristic or where such hatred was demonstrated at the time of committing the offence. Definitions have not been changed, nor have the protected characteristics underpinning the new legislation.

I remind the House that these protected characteristics are race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origin, descent, sexual orientation, sex characteristics, gender including gender expression or gender identity, and disability. The Bill will provide for aggravated offences, which carry an enhanced penalty unless the penalty is already set at the maximum possible.

There is also a safeguard built into all of the offences whereby a perpetrator may be convicted of the ordinary form of the offence if the hatred is not proven to the satisfaction of the court. A person will be guilty of a hate aggravated offence on the basis of a motivation test or a demonstration test of proof. It is this demonstration of hatred that we know from our consultation causes the additional harm to victims in comparison to other types of crimes.

It will still need to be proven beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law that a person committed a hate crime. It will not be the case that an assertion from a victim or an affected party that an offender demonstrated hatred in the commission of an offence will be enough to categorise someone as a hate crime offender. Creating these new hate offences will mean a crime can be investigated by gardaí from the very beginning as a potential hate crime, and evidence of their hate element can be presented and challenged in court.

The Bill also contains an aggravating sentencing provision whereby if, in the trial of any other offence, there is evidence of a hate crime element based on the protected characteristics, the judge shall hand down a higher sentence than if the hate element had not been present. The hate element will also be formally recorded with regard to the offence. It is very important that we record this and have a clear picture of what is happening.

It is a key duty of every Government to ensure that people are protected from crime, particularly where those crimes are targeted against them on account of their very existence. Although there were mixed views on the incitement to hatred provisions, the hate crime element of the legislation has been broadly welcomed and has received cross-party support. I believe it is very welcome to the general public. In all-island research conducted by the University of Limerick and Queens University last year, more than two thirds of those surveyed were in favour of hate crime legislation. This is because perpetrators of hate crime send a message to our minorities and our most vulnerable communities that they are not safe, that they do not have a right to be who they are and that they do not belong in Irish society. Through enactment of the Bill I believe we will send the counter-message that hate motivated attacks will not be tolerated, perpetrators will be punished and marginalised, and targeted communities will be protected. I thank Deputies for their vital support on the final Stages of the Bill.

To discuss Deputy Howlin's amendment, while I very much understand its objective and the intention behind it, and I believe the motivation has absolute merit, I cannot support it. In its current form the amendment seeks to apply the definition of "hatred" used in the Bill to the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989. While it would appear the objective is to broaden the protections that would be provided in the 1989 Act to cover the additional vulnerable groups covered in the hate offences Bill, unfortunately there are legal and technical issues with the proposal as it is set out. I believe we could always work through them but the overall objective here is to make sure we enact the hate crime legislation and make sure we return to the incitement to hatred and violence element which, unfortunately, has been taken out. I regret this is the decision I took but I believe we need greater consensus on it. Looking at the next Dáil we have an opportunity to make sure we can do this. I thank Deputies for their support and I look forward to engaging with them on this.

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