Helen McEntee: Irish minister drops plans for hate speech laws

The Republic of Ireland’s Minister for Justice has confirmed she has dropped plans to introduce new hate speech laws.

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

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

The bill is currently at its third stage before Seanad Éireann, (upper house of the Irish parliament), when it is examined section by section and amendments can be made.

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

“We don’t have that at the moment,” she said.

However she said she was “adamant” that hate crime legislation will be enacted.

She said the message would be sent that “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 have come from that there will be a tougher sentence, a harsher sentence at the end of the day”.

There has been a huge amount of debate over the bill.

It was criticised by social media platform X owner Elon Musk.

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

“I very much welcome that opposition in the Seanad has caused the government to rethink the matter and government backbenchers to put pressure on the government to see sense on this matter,” he said.

Sinn Féin had called for the bill to be scrapped although Sinn Féin politicians had voted in favour of it in the Dáil (lower house of Irish parliament) last April.

RTÉ reported that Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said they had not supported the bill in the Seanad and had voted against it in June.

“We had raised serious concerns with this legislation right through the process and had tabled a number of amendments,” he said.

Mr Doherty said it was time to stop 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 that the Irish government has “always made very clear our views regarding the distress that some particular forms of language can cause”.

However he said that parts of the bill had not got the “consensus and agreement that is needed is such an important piece of legislation.”

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