Debate contribution: Hate: Executive Approach

Debate contribution by Ms Sinéad McLaughlin on 22 September 2025.

MLA

Ms Sinéad McLaughlin

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

22 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Hate: Executive Approach

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5124403

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. As many in the Chamber have said, there should be absolutely no place in our society for racism, sectarianism or intimidation, yet the rise in that type of behaviour is now commonplace. Language and rhetoric that we once thought to be confined to the darker corners of the internet are now being repeated by leading public figures across Europe and the world. Let us not beat about the bush: language carries weight and words have consequences. Divisions in the Chamber do not stay here; they trickle down into our communities. More than most societies, we know the cost of letting sectarian or hateful behaviour go unchallenged. That is why it is so disappointing that many in the Chamber are often slow to condemn such behaviour, refuse to condemn it at all, or make, as my party colleague Matthew O'Toole said, "condemnation with caveats." It is just not acceptable. This has not happened in a vacuum. It is a crisis years in the making, fuelled by complacency and inaction. From my observation, the rise in violence and hate has in many ways been born out of Brexit, when extreme rhetoric and misinformation took hold. What followed was the normalisation of inflammatory language, lies and division. As use of anti-immigrant rhetoric rose, so, too, did hate crimes against minorities. People were promised that leaving the EU would mean —

I will.

I did not say that it is all to do with Brexit. There was hate crime long before Brexit. I am just saying that I have seen a rise in the use of that rhetoric, including in this House; I do not think that anybody can deny that that is the case. People were promised that leaving the EU would mean taking back control of their borders; that was never true. Brexit did not solve the root causes of division and discontent; it made them worse. The data on the rise of racism is testimony to that. Communities who have been failed by those who were elected to represent them — people who have no access to affordable housing and have had years of economic decline and a feeling of being left behind — are easy targets to exploit. Figures like Nigel Farage thrive on deprivation and division. It is on us to ensure that we do not allow that politics of fear to take root here. A recent report from the Peace Research Institute Oslo makes it clear that far-right rhetoric often seeks to appeal to disaffected citizens. Deprivation fuels hate crime and can predict where violence is most likely to occur. What is needed now is not more finger-pointing or complacency but an Executive-wide approach that recognises the scale of the problem and delivers decisive action. That is why our motion calls on the Executive to combat all forms of hate crime — and we are talking about all Executive Ministers. It is not the responsibility of one Department; it requires a collective response. The Minister of Health must tackle health inequalities; the Minister for Communities must tackle the housing crisis; the Minister for the Economy must go further and faster to tackle regional imbalance; and the Minister of Justice must urgently introduce hate crime legislation. Minister, I listened carefully to your response. I would welcome the time frame in which to introduce stand-alone hate legislation being closed. I do not think that we can stand still on that, given what is happening in the wider community. You have been the Minister of Justice for half a decade. I welcome your —

I want to get through this. I will come back to you, Paul. I welcome your response on closing the gap and building on that, Minister, hopefully within this mandate. I welcome the progress that has been made, but it is frustrating that we may not see that stand-alone legislation in this mandate. The Minister points, rightly, to the collapse of these institutions as one reason for that, but that cannot be used to mask the fact that the wider Executive response has been sub-par at best. Even when the First Minister and deputy First Minister came together to jointly condemn the rise in sectarianism and hate crime, the very next day, they were at loggerheads over a jobs fair in Derry. Leadership really matters. It is not just about leadership in front of the cameras; it is about consistency in words and actions, in public and behind closed doors. The Chamber has not been a nice environment for the past couple of weeks. It has been a toxic environment. I urge Members to be really careful. As I said before, that trickles down into our communities. We saw it on our streets over the weekend. It is playing out in our communities right now: families in north Belfast have been forced from their homes by intimidation; healthcare workers are fearful just to go home; and minority communities are boarding up their windows against attack. That is the reality of life for many people across our islands. While the tackling paramilitarism, criminality and organised crime programme has been extended, and we are throwing more money at it, it is unclear whether it is even delivering the intended impact.

Paramilitaries still operate in our communities, and that is a fact. For many, particularly women, it is the coercive control and blackmail that cause the deepest harm. We must break the cycle of quiet condemnation followed by no serious action. I am not ignorant of the difficult financial situation that we face. Resources are stretched. As Members across the House have said, we are told time and again that the PSNI is at breaking point and remains 1,000 officers short of what is sustainable. That is worrying. We cannot allow our streets to be controlled by those intent on stoking tension and division. The Minister of Finance must work with the Minister of Justice to ensure that the resources are there to recruit more officers and to give our courts the capacity to prosecute hate crimes properly. Words are not enough. There must be accountability in the system, and, yes, we must take back control but not in the divisive way that was used to tear us apart. We must take back control of the narrative on immigration and its value to our society. As others across the House have said, our minority communities are indispensable to this region. Our health, hospitality and care sectors would collapse without the workers who keep them running. Our LGBTQ+ community brings joy, light and resilience to a society that is too often weighed down by division, yet there is disgusting language used that puts a foot on the neck of a very small trans community in our society. Today was no exception. We will vote against the DUP amendment, which attempts to shift blame away from the Executive as a whole while failing to put forward solutions that are fit for purpose. Instead, the DUP amendment reinforces the status quo, which is clearly not working. This should be a moment to come together with a collective sense —.

On hate crime, I absolutely say that you should not target anybody. Hate is hate, no matter where it is. This should be a moment to come together with a collective sense of purpose to ensure the safety and security of all our people, regardless of race, ethnicity or background. We may not always agree on everything in the Chamber, but we should agree that no one should fear for their safety in their home, no one should be afraid to walk down their street and no community should ever be scapegoated for the failures of those in power. Let us prove once and for all that hate has no home in the North.

1,305 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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