Irish minister drops hate speech bill

The Irish Minister for Justice has confirmed that she has abandoned plans to introduce new hate speech laws.

Helen McEntee said she would still include the hate crime element in the proposed new legislation.

She will present amendments at the committee stage. Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022.

The bill is currently in its third stage before Seanad Éireann (the upper house of the Irish parliament), where it is being considered clause by clause and amendments may be made.

McEntee told Irish broadcaster RTÉ that “to bring forward new hate speech legislation we need consensus.”

“We don’t have that right now,” she said.

However, she said she was “adamant” that a hate crimes law would be enacted.

She said the message would be sent: “If you attack a person, commit a crime against a person or a group of people, simply because of who they are, the colour of their skin, where they come from, there will be a harsher penalty, a harsher penalty at the end of the day.”

There was a There was a huge debate around the bill.

Senator Michael McDowell said he welcomed the changes to the bill.

“I am very pleased that the opposition in the Seanad has pushed the government to reconsider the issue and that government backbenchers have put pressure on the government to show common sense on this issue,” he said.

Sinn Féin had called for the bill to be dropped despite Sinn Féin politicians voting for it in the Dáil (the lower house of the Irish parliament) last April.

RTÉ reported that Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the party did not support the bill in the Seanad and voted against it in June.

“We have expressed serious concerns about this legislation throughout the process and have tabled a number of amendments,” he said.

Mr Doherty said it was time to end the “farce” of the bill.

Speaking at the Fine Gael Small Business and Enterprise conference in Athlone on Sunday, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe said the Irish Government has “always made very clear its views about the distress that particular forms of language can cause”.

However, he said some parts of the bill had not achieved the “consensus and agreement necessary for such an important piece of legislation.”

He said the Irish government’s “efforts to look at what’s happening on social media, our efforts to better regulate that, are a clear sign of our efforts to address the effect that language and incitement can have on behaviour and threats within our society.”