2175. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of sentences made under Section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences Act) 2024 since its initiation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55183/26]

Criminal actions carried out based on prejudice against the inherent characteristics or identity of a person are abhorrent to the basic values of our Republic.

The introduction of the Criminal Justice Hate Offences Act 2024 strengthens the law by ensuring that perpetrators face tougher penalties where hatred is proven to be a motivating factor, or where hatred is demonstrated based on the identity of the victim.

The management of the courts, operational matters and logistical functions are the responsibility of the judiciary and Courts Service, which are independent in exercising their functions under the Courts Service Act 1998 and the Constitution. The Courts Service has a dedicated email address for the provision of information to members of the Houses of the Oireachtas at: oireachtasenquiries@courts.ie.

To be of assistance to the Deputy, I have sought information from the Courts Service. I am informed by the Courts Service that Section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024 provides that a Court shall, without prejudice to any other enactment or rule of law and subject to subsections (2) and (3), treat as an aggravating factor hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics or any of those characteristics on the part of a person in the commission of an offence to which the section applies for the purposes of determining the sentence to be imposed on the person for that offence.

I’m further informed that while the judge must have regard to this in sentencing, it is not possible to provide data on instances when this has been considered or what characteristics /protected characteristics of the person/group of persons concerned were relevant to the offence.