Sir, – Any review of our hate crime laws ("Fitzgerald open to reviewing hate crime law", July 23rd) must include consideration of specific criminal offences as well as increased sentences for hate-motivated crime – similar to those in many other jurisdictions.
While there has been widespread revulsion at recent high-profile attacks, such incidents do not come as any great surprise to frontline organisations. At the Immigrant Council of Ireland we responded to 217 reports of racism in 2014, of which one in 10 involved physical violence.
The Minister is correct in acknowledging that our laws in this area are 30 years old, and we must accept that they have not kept pace with the huge societal changes in our country.
Together with other civil society groups, we are working to produce our own draft legislation as a matter of urgency and hope to be in a position to publish in the coming months, certainly in advance of a general election.
The public response in recent days has shown those behind such attacks have no support and do not represent anyone.
It is time our laws also reflected that in our communities there is no acceptable level of racism. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN KILLORAN,
Chief Executive,
Immigrant Council
of Ireland,
Andrew Street,
Dublin 2.