The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 has entered the 4th stage of the Oireachtas law-making process. This means that it is almost finished in the Dáil and will soon move on to the second house of the Oireachtas, the Seanad.
It does not seem as though any significant changes have been implemented throughout the past stages; the Bill still enables censorship based on gross speculation, and the provision for freedom of expression is perhaps the most poorly defined part of the Bill:
For the purposes of this Part, any material or behaviour is not taken to incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics or any of those characteristics solely on the basis that that material or behaviour includes or involves discussion or criticism of matters relating to a protected characteristic.
Section 11 – “Protection of freedom of expression”
In light of this, we encourage you to contact your local TD’s, who’s details can be found here, and to sign and share our petition.