Speaking to RTÉ’s This Week, Ms McEntee said she is not scrapping the parts of legislation which focus on hate speech but that they requires further discussion.
“Firstly, I think it’s important for people to know that we do have incitement to hatred legislation,” she said.
“While I don’t believe it’s strong enough, that’s why I had proposed to bring forward changes, because of the importance of this we need a consensus and what’s very clear, while there are quite entrenched views and you won’t always get a full consensus, you do need a consensus to bring this forward.”
Ms McEntee said the recent RTÉ Primetime programme which featured footage of protests outside accommodation for migrants, including those in Coolock, showed some scenes of “vile, disgusting, racist abuse being hurled at people”, adding that she is “not scrapping” the bill, but certain elements require consensus which has not yet been reached.
“What I’m not doing is scrapping it, I’m asking that we have further discussion, further debate and we find a way to move forward on it while at the same time saying we need hate crime laws in this country, we are one of the only countries in Europe that don’t have hate crime laws and that, I think, is much clearer to people.”
Ms McEntee said she does not want the lack of consensus on hate speech legislation to delay the introduction of hate crime legislation.
When asked where the consensus for the bill, which passed through the Dáil, went, the justice minister said much of the debate in the Seanad “moved away from what we are talking about” and led people to become much more “entrenched” in their views.
She added that it is not correct in this instance to move forward on the legislation without a consensus.
“I’m not walking away from it but I think we need to ensure we have hate laws and that’s the reason why I am pushing ahead,” she said.
She added: “There are people being physically assaulted, there are people where crimes are already being committed, where it’s clearly motivated by hatred of that person and we don’t have a law to recognise that.”
Ms McEntee said the protected characteristics already defined will not be changed in the proposals going to Cabinet this week.
On the definition of gender used, which has been criticised by Senator Michael McDowell, Ms McEntee said the discussion around the bill is not “ideological” but about “keeping people safe”.
“The specific definition is for this bill. It’s to acknowledge that if a person if being attacked for who they are because, for example, they are transgender, that is the aggravating factor. It is not a debate on gender.
“Why should anybody be attacked simply because of who they are?”
Ms McEntee said she does not know how anyone could disagree, adding: “If you have a son or daughter and is attacked simply because of who they are, we know that has a more significant impact on a person.”
She accepted that there needs to be “greater consensus” around the hate speech element, but said the hate crime legislation remains “very clear” and will be progressed.
