Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 July 2022
127. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his Department’s current working projects to tackle harassment perpetrated on the LGBTQ+ community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35704/22]
View answerThe Government is committed to achieving its vision of a safe, fair and inclusive Ireland where people are supported to flourish and to live inclusive, healthy and fulfilling lives, whatever their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics. Ireland’s first National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy 2019-2022, published in November 2019, is the primary policy vehicle to achieve this vision.
The Strategy pursues objectives under four thematic pillars providing a vision of an Ireland where LGBTI+ people are visible and included, treated equally, healthy and feel safe and supported. It includes over 100 actions aimed at making progress towards these high-level objectives.
To offset delays in the strategy's implementation due to the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, I extended its lifetime into 2022. Work is continuing this year on the implementation of the strategy. The strategy will be reviewed next year as part of the process of developing a successor.
In relation to specific actions to keep the community safe; action 21 of the strategy aims to ensure that Ireland has robust legislation and supports in place to combat hate crime, and encourages people to report it. The Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána lead on this action, and have introduced several measures to protect LGBTI+ people including changes to the recording of motives on the Garda PULSE system and the implementation of an online hate crime reporting tool.
It is expected that the Department of Justice will publish the Hate Crime Bill in the coming months. The Bill will create new, aggravated forms of certain existing criminal offences, where those offences are motivated by prejudice against a protected characteristic. The protected characteristics identified in the General Scheme are race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender, and disability. The Employment Equality Acts also provide protection against harassment in the workplace, including against members of the LGBTQ+ community.
In addition, my Department recently commissioned research aimed at capturing the views and experiences of people who have been subjected to the practice of conversion therapy in Ireland. This qualitative research which commenced in February 2022 is expected to be completed in Autumn 2022, and will assist the Government in developing legislation to ban the practice of conversion therapy. My Department will also examine international good practice in this regard.
