Racist abuse of Dublin Rose
Deputy Geoghegan condemns racist abuse directed at Suad Mooge after her selection as Dublin Rose. The Taoiseach joins the condemnation and says Ireland must not tolerate racist abuse, while recalling the difficulty of legislating on hate speech.
Will the Taoiseach join me in condemning the racist abuse that Suad Mooge, the recently selected Dublin Rose, received simply by virtue of winning the competition? She was subjected to racist abuse because of the colour of her skin. I understand that she grew up in Sligo and then went to school in Terenure, which is in my constituency. I happened to listen back to her on "Liveline" yesterday and it was a personality explosion listening to her. I listened to the resilience that she has to display on a day-to-day basis through her whole life. We would not tolerate the level of racist abuse that she faced if it was happening on the streets daily. She faced this volume of racism because it was on online platforms. Let us blunt be about this - those online platforms are monetising the hate and racism. We are doing a lot in these Houses and in Europe to protect children. What can we do to protect people like Suad Mooge and some of our incredible sporting heroes who faced the same level of racism in that online sphere?
Comment on this
I join with the Deputy in condemning those racists attacks on the Dublin Rose who has been selected. It is absolutely appalling and there should be no tolerance of such racist abuse of any person in Ireland, or anywhere for that matter. Again, all of us in the House need to reflect on this. I recall in the last Dáil that there was legislation on hate speech, which eventually ran into a roadblock politically because others suggested that it undermined free speech and so on. To be honest, the Dáil collectively shied away from some aspects of that. We did bring in the additional penalties for criminal convictions and so on. At least it was done in terms of assaults and that. However, there is a huge issue, and the Deputy is correct in terms of the monetisation of this. I am reading some stuff on the by-election in Dublin Central that is quite appalling. Stuff just appears online irrespective of the candidate, and it is just appalling that this kind of stuff can happen. We need to collectively address it.