The Government minister responsible for new communities has admitted he would be "terrified" if he was a member of the Roma community living in Ireland at the moment.
Speaking at the University of Limerick, Minister of State for New Communities, Culture and Equality, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, criticised the behaviour of those involved in recent anti-Roma protests in Waterford city as "cheap and cowardly".
The Minister was invited to UL today to chair a round table discussion on legislating for hate crime in Ireland.
“If I was a member of the Roma community and lived in Waterford, or if I was member of the Roma community and I lived in Ireland I would be prettty terrified at the moment, not just because of that incident but because of previous incidents that have happened in terms of the State’s interaction with the Roma community,” Mr Ó Ríordáin said.
Almost 200 people gathered in Waterford city last Saturday evening outside the home of a large Roma family — including toddlers and children — and staged a protest in which windows were smashed, and the doors broken in.
Some Roma families had to be evacuated from their homes and are now living at undisclosed addresses.
One man was arrested in connection to the incident but was later released without charge.
An anti-racism rally is due to take place in the town this evening.
The meeting on hate crime today coincides with the establishment of a new research project conducted by the Hate and Hostility Research Group (HHRG) at the University of Limerick.
Funded by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), the research will inform new hate crime laws in Ireland.
According to Mr Ó Ríordáin, recent events in Waterford expose once again the need for examination of legislation in this area.
“It is clear for example that the 1989 Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act is not fit for purpose. We need to strive to live in a Republic free from hate crime and prejudicial targeting because of one’s ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender or disability. We need legislation to set the threshold of decency in that regard.”
Speaking about racism in Ireland, Mr O’Riordain said there has always been a problem in this country with accepting difference.
“We now have a situation in Ireland where we have a lot of people from different countries who are working here and who want to be part of the Irish nation and who want to contribute and I think we have to come to terms with that, and to celebrate it and to move on.”
“But to suggest that one particular cultural identity is holding us back or more involved in criminal activity than another is wrong. If anybody in a different country was to say that all irish are, whatever — you can guess what the negative stereo types might be — we would reject that outright and we have to do the same for whatever new communities there are in Ireland.”
Mr Ó Ríordáin said the people responsible for the recent anti-Roma protests in Waterford, know they were picking on a vulnerable group.
“I think they known themselves that their behaviour is cheap and cowardly. I think they know themselves if it was another individual or a criminal gang who were Irish they probably wouldn’t do it.
“But because it is the Roma community they decided to tarnish everybody of that community with the same behaviour and they decided to take upon themselves to go to their private home and organise a demonstration outside somebody’s home and to taunt and to jeer and to engage in destruction and what would appear to be violent behaviour in terms of breaking windows.”