LAST UPDATE | 21 Sep

THE ISSUE OF hate speech is to be dropped from forthcoming legislation on hate crimes, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has confirmed.

The minister intends to press ahead with plans to legislate against physical hate crimes but the parts of the proposed legislation that dealt with hate speech will be left out due to a lack of consensus within Government.

The hate speech legislation, intended to penalise abusive or threatening communication that targeted a person due to their race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion or sexual orientation, has been the subject of protest by far-right agitators and conspiracy theorists.

Foreign actors like X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk have also tried to intervene to influence Irish government policy in the area.

The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 proposed to strengthen the legal recognition of hatred in the criminal justice system.

The Journal understands that McEntee intends to propose a series of committee stage amendments in the Seanad to remove the aspects of the bill that concern incitement to violence and hatred.

The bill would then proceed only with the elements that deal with hate crime, including providing for higher prison sentences for certain crimes where it is proven that the crime was motivated by hatred or where hatred was demonstrated.

The Journal understands that McEntee presented this proposal to a meeting of the coalition’s party leaders earlier in the summer and that they agreed upon this approach.

Speaking to RTÉ this afternoon, McEntee said: “We currently have incitement to hatred legislation. I believe it needs to be strengthened. However, we need a consensus to do that and we don’t currently have that, so I am moving forward with the hate crime element of the legislation.”

She said: “I want to make sure that if somebody is attacked simply because of who they are, where they come from, the colour of their skin, that the person doing it to them will receive a higher or a tougher sentence.”

“We are the only country in Europe that does not have hate crime legislation and I want to change that,” McEntee added.

Under the proposed legislation, a person would be found guilty of a hate-aggravated offence if they commit an offence and, in doing so, are motivated by hatred of or demonstrate hatred based on a protected characteristic at the time of, or just before or after, committing the offence.

It will still need to be proven beyond reasonable doubt in court that the person committed a hate crime and an assertion from a victim or affected party that an offender demonstrated hatred will not alone be enough to categorise someone as a hate crime offender.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin, Green Party Minister of State Ossian Smyth echoed McEntee that Ireland is one of the only countries in Europe that doesn’t have legislation on hate crime, and “certainly” needs such legislation. 

Smyth added that the findings of RTÉ Investigates’ programme, which aired on Thursday and showed new footage from multiple demonstrations against asylum accommodation in Dublin and Wicklow, show “the direct connection between encouraging attacks on people because of their colour – that’s why we need to legislate. Those aspects are being removed from the bill.”

Smyth said that although the verbal aspect of hate crimes – incitement to hatred – is already criminalised under legislation from 1989, he agreed that the current legislation needed strengthening. 

“What we don’t have in legislation at the moment is hate crime. We don’t have the idea that a crime can be aggravated.”

Labour Party leader and TD Ivana Bacik, also speaking on the programme, said she found it “deeply regrettable” that the government were “apparently bowing to some sort of pressure” to remove elements of hate speech from the forthcoming bill.

“I’m looking back at Minister McEntee’s speech when she introduced the reforming provisions back in 2023 and she said, over 35 years, we’ve had legislation which is seen as ineffective, limited and largely discredited, and that’s because it’s almost impossible to bring a successful prosecution for incitement to hatred under the current law.

“That’s why it’s necessary that we change the law,” Bacik said, and added that she viewed this to be a “government failing”.

Aontú leader and TD Peadar Tóibín, who has staunchly spoken against the hate speech legislation, commended the decision. “This is a good day for a liberal democracy in terms of the government’s decision,” he said.

The Hate Speech legislation is to be dropped.

This was a censorship bill. It was designed to prevent citizens opposing government ideology.

Aontú was the only party in the Dáil to fully oppose this legislation.

It shows how effective Aontú has become. https://t.co/WoeALwuIAK

— Peadar Tóibín TD (@Toibin1) September 21, 2024

Tóibín, who has classed the proposed legislation as “authoritarian” and “censorship” agreed that other elements of the bill are less contentious.

“What [hate speech legislation] meant was that reasonable political discourse was going to have a chilling effect,” the TD told host Colm Ó Mongáin.

“This was an incredibly poor bill. It seems like, again, Simon Harris may be showing that he’s more street wise. That he realises that Ireland is bigger than maybe kind of the Irish Times editorial staff, etc, and that people want to be able to engage politically and respectfully on major issues that are in our country at the moment.”