Bill on racist behaviour to be presented to Minister

The draft heads of a new Bill to deal with unacceptable standards of racist behaviour is due to to be presented to the Minister of State for New Communities next May.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said the focus was now on existing hate crime legislation and “the failures of the Incitement to Hatred Act”.

“We have to have legislation which provides a threshold of decency below which we cannot descend” he said.

He said the move was necessary following events in Waterford at the weekend in which a Roma family were subjected to racial abuse and had their windows broken by a mob.

The Hate and Hostility Research Group at the University of Limerick is to draft heads of the Bill, Mr Ó Ríordáin said.

He told RTE’s Morning Ireland he expected the research group to consult with disability, Traveller and ethnic groups and present the heads of the Bill to him by May of next year.

Following that it would be his responsibility to consult the Attorney General and bring the Bill to Government, he said.

Mr O’Riordan said he expected the research group would be looking at the experience of countries such as Canada, England and Wales and the legislative measures they used to prevent hostile racial tensions resulting in “lynch mobs” gathering outside the homes of members of ethnic communities.

He said a crowd had gathered outside the home of a Roma family in Waterford at the weekend shouting “Roma! Roma! Roma! Out! Out! Out!” and windows in the house had been broken. If he was a member of the community he said he would have been “pretty terrified”.