Vol. 498 No. 4
399 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when the Prohibition of the Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989, was first published and enacted; the reasons this Act was introduced; if it was necessary to introduce this legislation arising out of our formal international obligations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27821/98]
The Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989, was published in November 1988 and came into operation on 29 December 1989.
There were two main reasons for the Act. First, prohibition on incitement to hatred had been identified by an interdepartmental committee chaired by the Attorney General's office as a legislative change that was required before Ireland could ratify the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Second, section 4 of the Act created a new offence of preparing or possessing material or recordings of a racist or such like offensive nature to be distributed or broadcast in the State or elsewhere. This provision was not required for ratification of the UN Covenant but was necessary to deal with a relatively minor problem at the time of this country being used for the preparation of racist material for distribution here and abroad.
