The Minister of Justice has stated that she will not be pursuing her intentions to enact new rules against hate speech, but she will continue to work on the criminal justice system’s hate crime component, reports RTE.
Before an Athlone speech, Helen McEntee said that she will forward changes to the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 before the Seanad at the committee stage.
“The incitement to hatred element [of the bill] does not have a consensus, so that will be dealt with at a later stage,” said Ms McEntee, reports RTE.
According to Ms. McEntee, she presented the leaders of the three coalition parties with her suggested amendments to this law throughout the summer.
“I am adamant that hate crime legislation will be enacted,” she stated, reports RTE.
Speaking on specific sections of the Bill, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe stated the Government acknowledged that it had “not been able to generate the consensus and agreement that is needed is such an important piece of legislation.”
Although laws against hate speech have been in place since 1989, Mr. Donohoe claimed that government measures in other domains help tackle the problem of hate speech, reports RTE.
“The Government… has always made very clear our views regarding the distress that some particular forms of language can cause,” Mr Donohoe said, also speaking in Athlone, reports RTE.
“What we are doing is through other forms of legislation, for example our 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,” Mr Donohoe said, reports RTE.
The modifications made to the measure have been praised by Senator Michael McDowell.
“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, reports RTE.
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