Hate crime legislation needs to be introduced now in order to tackle the spiralling level of homophobic attacks, a gay rights organisation has said.
The call comes as rainbow flags adorned the capital yesterday for the 40th Dublin Pride parade. Latest figures show there was a 29% increase in hate crimes last year, 22% of which were sexuality based.
Padraig Rice, policy and research manager with LGBT Ireland, said there has been an increase in hate crimes over the last two years in Ireland. He said the incidents also includes a large proportion of homophobic attacks.
