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.

'Tougher, harsher sentence'

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.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8vy235yxjo

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