The General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021 was published on 16 April and is available on my Department's website.
Following its publication in April, the General Scheme was referred to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice for pre-legislative scrutiny. The scheduling of pre-legislative scrutiny is a matter for the Committee.
The Bill has also been referred to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel for drafting.
The Bill will create new, aggravated forms of certain existing criminal offences, where those offences are motivated by prejudice against a protected characteristic, which include sexuality and gender.
The General Scheme provides for amendments to the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act to provide for harassment aggravated by prejudice against one of the protected characteristics and also provides for harassment aggravated by prejudice against a protected characteristic with threats to kill or cause serious harm.
The aggravated offences will generally carry an enhanced penalty, compared to the ordinary offence, and the record of any conviction for such an offence would clearly state that the offence was a hate crime.