An Bunreacht 1937 Irish Laws

The Irish Hate Speech Bill is not only unconstitutional (see Article 40), "it contains some very questionable provisions. It is described as a bill to protect, but it has the capacity to do immense damage to free speech and democracy in Ireland". ~ Baroness Nuala O'Loan, former police ombudsman in Northern Ireland. The maximum penalty for this offence is 5 years in jail.

This Hate Speech Bill also goes against your inalienable, God-given rights:

Click here for full list list of inalienable (unalienable) rights. These have all been proven in international Supreme Courts.

The right to life, freedom , health and the pursuit of happiness
We have the right to be presumed innocent, suffering no detention or arrest, no search or seizure without reasonable cause
The right to privacy and confidentiality, free from unwarranted invasion
The right to express knowledge necessary to one's rights and freedoms
The right to live in peace and to be left alone when law-abiding
The right to remain silent when accused, to avoid self-incrimination

These rights are also also protected by Article 10 in The European Convention on Human Rights. "

The right to peaceful association, assembly, expression and protest" Click here for full details.

Criminal Justice Bill entitled an Act to amend the law relating to the prohibition of incitement to violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of certain characteristics (referred to as protected characteristics) of the person or the group of persons and to provide for an offence of condoning, denying or grossly trivialising genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace and, in doing so, to give effect to Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law; to provide for certain offences aggravated by hatred in the Criminal Damage Act 1991, the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 and the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997; for those purposes, to provide for amendments of those and other enactments and to repeal the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989; to provide in respect of other offences for hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of certain characteristics (referred to as protected characteristics) of the person or the group of persons to be an aggravating factor in sentencing for those offences; and to provide for related matters.

Last updated: 21 Jun 2023

History of this Bill

The bill is currently before Seanad Éireann, Third Stage

For full bill click here

21 Jun 2023

According the the Cambridge Dictionary the verb "to shelve" refers not to take action on something until a later time / delaying and wasting time / to buy time.

Points to consider:

If the Government plans drop the Hate Speech Bill, dropped, what is it planning to shelve elements of?

According to The Irish Times article on Sep 21, 2024 (on the right of this page) the Government plans to drop the controversial Hate Speech Bill. If this is the case, what then was Pat Leahy of The Irish Times referring to (on September 2024) from which there would be elements shelved from? Surely you cannot amend a Bill that won't exist?! What are the facts here?

Points to consider on the Original Bill:

Minister Helen McEntee has repeatedly failed to comply with Senators' requests to define "hate speech" and "hatred".
This Bill gives An Garda Siochana the right to enter your home without warrant and confiscate all the electronic devices on the premises, including your visitors and children's. You are then obliged to supply all passwords, and if you refuse, you will face a custodial prison sentence.
Is there a need for this Bill when there are currently laws that protect Irish people from incitement to violence? Will this Criminal Justice Bill (above) will give way to Government overreach?
Do the numerous laws being enacted each year benefit society? If not, who actually benefits from them?
If the Hate Speech Bill is passed it will be used with the 'Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022'. Coimisiún na Meán holds media platforms to account to implement this Act. Global corporate social media platforms, such as Facebook (Meta), WhatsApp (Meta), Instagram, Google and YouTube etc have agreed to enforce this legislation, under the guise of protecting children. Other platforms such as X (Twitter) and TikTok are resisting censorship. Elon Musk believes that there is a benefit to open discussion and in giving people a chance to hear both sides in order to form balanced opinions, as well as an opportunity to rebut misinformation. If there is no openness online, we will only be privy to the narratives of the lobbyists with the Government's ear to push their commercial agendas. (Tobacco industries and the pharmaceutical industries are a case in point).
What kind of country will we end up with when our citizens are censored or banned from having a controversial opinion, one that might disagree with the mainstream narrative?

Plans to introduce Hate Speech 'Laws' dropped - ahead of general election

By Jack Horgan-Jones, Pat Leahy, The Irish Times

Sep 21, 2024 05:00 AM

2 min. read

The Government is to drop controversial plans to introduce hate speech laws, which had been criticised by its own backbenchers as well as free speech groups and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The move comes as the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll shows that a return of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to government after the next election is the option most favoured by voters.

McEntee expects Hate Speech bill to be passed "by the end of the year"

Article by Ben Scallan Gript media, September 8th 2024

Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee expects her controversial Hate Speech bill to be in force "by the end of the year", and says how confident she is that nobody in Ireland will ever be taken to court for "misgendering" under the law. Question by Ben Scallan.Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, defends the unpopular Hate Speech Bill on the basis of following other countries' lead, as opposed to evaluating it on it's own merits. She has resisted defining the word "hate".

Point to Consider:

Éire is the only country in the EU with standalone common law courts. To fall into line with EU legislation would dilute Éire's constitutional rights - see Article 5 of An Bunreacht. ('Éire is a sovereign, independent, democratic State') It would in effect be surrendering our inalienable rights and relinquishing our nation's sovereign status, which no men or States can impede upon at law.