I WILL TACKLE HATE SPEECH LAW WORRIES
Justice Minister accepts ‘valid concerns’ on Bill
THE Justice Minister will look at how she can address some concerns about the hate speech law, but said there’s been a lot of “misinformation” about it.
Helen Mcentee said she accepts people have “valid concerns” about the Bill, but the legislative intent is not to criminalise people’s opinions.
There has been some opposition to the Bill, particularly in the Seanad, where senators have questioned whether it would have a chilling effect on free speech and asked for a definition of “hate”.
Ms Mcentee has also faced opposition from within her own party.
Ex-justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said it should be “brought back to the drawing board”, while Fine Gael TD Michael Ring called for the Government to abandon it.
Mr Flanagan said that lawmakers must provide definitions of wording in the legislation, including “hate” and “gender”. The Fine Gael TD said there is a “lack of definition and clarity” in the current Bill.
He posted: “Judicial activism not a good basis of law-making. Fundamental role of legislature is to make clearly understood laws. Courts then apply these laws.”
Meanwhile, Fianna Fail TD Willie O’dea described the legislation as “woke”, and called for it to be abandoned.
Ms Mcentee told RTE: “Our party and our government has always been a broadchurch of views and ideas. I think there’s a lot of misinformation. I think people think what’s being talked about is criminalising people’s opinions, which is not the case here.”
She said other countries which have enacted hate speech laws have not led to people being locked up “en masse”.
Our party has always been a broadchurch of ideas
HELEN MCENTEE YESTERDAY