'Everyone has a right to live safely' - Number of hate crimes in 2021 revealed by Gardaí

Gardaí have revealed almost 500 hate crimes and hate-related incidents occurred in Ireland last year. 

Newly published figures show a total of 448 reports in 2021, 389 of which were hate crimes with 59 hate related (non-crime) incidents. 

A Hate Crime is defined as any criminal offence perceived by the victim or any other person to, in whole or in part, be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on actual or perceived age, disability, race, colour, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender.
 
A Hate Related Incident (non-crime) is any non-crime incident motivated by the above.

According to An Garda Síochána's figures, a total of 483 discriminatory motives were recorded in 2021 (some incidents have more than one discriminatory motive), with race the most prevalent (44%) followed by sexual orientation (15%) and nationality (14%).

Incidents were recorded across all 9 discriminatory motives. 

Half of hate-related incidents (50%) reported last year occurred in the Dublin Metropolitan Region, with 19% taking place in the Southern region, 16% in the North-West and 15% in the Eastern region. 

Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman, whose remit includes the Garda National Diversity and Integration Unit, welcomed the publication of these statistics, stating, "The definitions and recording practices launched in late 2020, are enabling us to gain greater insight into these discriminatory motives and respond accordingly.

"The release of figures today is the first following the introduction of new procedures, introduced under the Garda Diversity and Integration Strategy, which have enabled the establishment of a verified baseline to be used from 2021 onwards." 
 
She added: "Everyone has a right to live safely. Hate crimes have a huge impact on victims, because they are targeted because of who they are, and they also have a significant impact on the wider community. I want to thank that wider community, NGOs and the media for consistently highlighting the issue of hate crime, and I urge any person who has experienced or observed prejudice to come forward and report those incidents to us.

"I can assure people that complaints will be dealt with thoroughly and professionally."