If it is left up to Taoiseach (prime minister) Simon Harris, an amended version of Ireland’s insidious and controversial hate speech bill will be passed before the next general election.
Under the bill in its current form, owning and distributing “material likely to incite hatred against persons” could carry multi-year long prison sentences.
Harris’ reiteration of his commitment to the bill’s passage comes as Scotland’s own newly enacted hate crime legislation is causing a flood of ‘hate crime’ reports which have put undue pressure on police, who are left unable to handle an increasing number of shoplifting cases, sexual assaults, and car thefts.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, the Fine Gael leader said that he had decided to pass the bill before March 22, 2025—the last possible legal date for holding a general election.
“I have made a decision that we are going to pass a law in this space [of time], I’m very clear on that,” he said.
“Hate crime is not a pretend crime, it is a very real thing. If I want to be tough on law and order and support the Gardaí [the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police and security service], that means supporting the Gardaí in pursuing all crimes, including hate crimes … So we will pass the Bill. The Bill will be amended and the Bill will seek to address significant concerns that have been made.”
Harris also noted the bill’s “unintended consequences” for free speech and that the amendment would address “legitimate issues” that people had raised.
The current bill proposes a two-year prison sentence for people who simply have offending material in their possession, and a five-year one for distributing such material with the intent to incite hatred against people with “protected characteristics” such as race, gender, or religious belief. Events have shown that suspicions that such laws would be only applied to certain types of people are well-founded.
Indeed, as reported by breakingnews.ie, constituents have been flooding TDs’ email boxes with complaints that the proposed hate speech legislation would make Ireland a “police state,” since the hate and gender definitions it employs are unclear.
No doubt in part inspired by these messages—alongside the unmitigated disaster unfolding in Scotland—numerous government TDs (MPs) have called for the legislation to be summarily scrapped.
These include Harris’ fellow party members Charlie Flanagan and Michael Ring as well as Fianna Fáil TDs Willie O’Dea and James O’Connor.
Harris, either blind to or unconcerned with popular sentiment, said he found this “a little unusual” considering the fact that the bill was in the legislative programme for this parliamentary year, and around 90% of TDs had voted for the legislation in 2023.
The bill is also, at least in part, the cause of a minor shake-up of Ireland’s political landscape.
Late last month, the leftist Sinn Féin, the country’s largest opposition party, withdrew its support for the piece of legislation, arguing it was “badly thought through” and did “not have support across the political spectrum.”
Commenting on the proposed law in January, legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said the law would allow police to access a person’s text messages and emails in the search for prosecutable material. The ADF also criticized the bill’s vague definition of ‘gender,’ saying it would:
potentially create a legal scenario where perceived offense against a non-exhaustive list of identities can be met with the full force of the law including possible custodial sentences.