The Pride march will take place this Saturday in Dublin. In 2022, 582 hate crimes were reported to An Garda Síochána, an increase of 30% from 2021. According to ILGA-Europe, last year was the most violent year for LGBTQ+ people in Europe in a decade. We know from Irish research that 75% of LGBTQ+ people have been verbally abused, while one in five of us has been punched, hit or physically attacked due to our sexual orientation or gender identity. Hate crime legislation alone will not solve the problem. We need to see a range of measures, including training, education and inclusive relationships and sex education, RSE, in all our schools. The Coalition Against Hate Crime Ireland and individual organisations such as LGBT Ireland have called for a national action plan on hate crimes. That call has gone unanswered. Will the Government commit to such a plan? Apart from the Bill, what is the Government doing to reverse the rise in hate crimes?

I had a very good meeting yesterday with eight of the organisations that represent the LGBT community. The Tánaiste was present, as was the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee. We discussed this particular issue. The Minister committed to do two things. First, once the hate crime legislation is signed into law, a public campaign will be run to inform people of the law and what it means. We will run a campaign around hate and incitement to hatred similar to the campaign we have run on Coco's Law on sharing intimate messages with people. The Deputy will be familiar with it. That commitment has been made. A commitment has also been made to engage with An Garda Síochána because there should be greater engagement with the Garda around detecting and prosecuting crimes against the LGBT community. In fairness to An Garda Síochána, it has improved a lot when it comes to that issue but there is always room for further improvement.