An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice have refused to confirm a claim made by the Minister for Justice that an absence of incitement to violence legislation is inhibiting the ability of the police force to do its job effectively.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee, in response to a question by Gript reporter Ben Scallan, said she had been informed by the police force that a lack of laws covering incitement to violence was inhibiting the ability of the Gardai to do its job effectively.
Both the Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána have refused to confirm the Minister’s claims.
Minister McEntee previously defended the Hate Speech Bill, claiming that Ireland has no incitement to violence legislation at present.
Reporter Ben Scallan challenged the Minister on whether she would be concerned about the “vagueness” of the Hate Speech legislation and how it could be interpreted, she said there was a need for the legislation. He also challenged the Minister on her claim that there is currently no incitement to violence legislation in Ireland.
“What I’m saying is that we don’t have incitement to violence legislation,” Minister McEntee told Gript, adding:
“The Gardai are telling me that that is prohibiting them in actually doing their job effectively.”
Claiming that there is no legislation in place to deal with incitement to violence, she added:
“We also don’t have incitement to violence legislation, so this isn’t new; this isn’t radical. The ‘89 Act already has incitement to hatred legislation. Hate is not defined, but that is not the problem with the legislation. The legislation is not workable for different reasons, and that is why we are updating it here.
“We don’t have Hate Crime legislation; what we do have is incitement to hatred legislation but it’s not updated. It doesn’t take into account the fact that we live in a digital world,” the Minister claimed.
“So, we are behind. We are laggards when it comes to protecting those that are most vulnerable in our society. There are people in this country who are not safe because of the actions of others, and if we do not update this legislation, I believe that we are letting them down.”
Defending her hate speech bill, Justice Minister Helen McEntee repeatedly claimed that Ireland currently has no laws prohibiting incitement to violence.@Ben_Scallan asks if this means it's currently legal in Ireland to call for violence against individuals and groups. pic.twitter.com/ZT7WMb9lnj
— gript (@griptmedia) March 27, 2024
Gript asked An Garda Síochána to confirm whether incitement is currently a crime in Ireland, and if it was the position of the force that the lack of incitement to violence legislation is inhibiting the ability of the force to do its job effectively.
We also asked a spokesperson to confirm if it is the position of the force that the lack of hate crime legislation, more generally, is inhibiting the ability of the force to do its job effectively.
However, An Garda Síochána refused to answer whether the Minister’s description of their position was correct.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: “The Garda Commissioner is on record as highlighting the need for specific Hate Crime Legislation to assist An Garda Síochána in its statutory remit as provided under section 7 An Garda Síochána Act 2005, as amended.
“The specific detail of any legislation is a matter for the lead Government Department and the Legislature.”
“An Garda Síochána does not provide legal advice or interpretations to any 3rd party,” the force added.
An Garda Síochána, when pressed for confirmation, said it had no further comment on the enquiry.
The Department of Justice were also asked to confirm whether it was correct to say that, whilst there is no legislation explicitly laying out the offence of incitement, incitement to violence, and incitement to induce another to commit a crime, is widely recognised in common law and is, on that basis, already a crime in this country.
In addition, we asked the Minister to provide further detail of what An Garda Siochana said to her regarding incitement, who made those statements, and when they were made. This publication also asked what practical different the department believed it would make if incitement to violence was codified into the legislation versus the current scenario.
In response, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said:
“Full transposition of European 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 is one of the key objectives of the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Hatred or Violence and Hate Offences) Bill 2022. It is a requirement under EU law that Ireland criminalises intentional incitement to violence or hatred against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin.
“The proposed legislation will also update the provisions of existing laws which already criminalise extreme hate speech – the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 – to reflect the online context in which people now communicate and to ensure the legislation is more effective.
“The Garda Commissioner is on record as highlighting the need for specific Hate Crime Legislation to assist An Garda Síochána in its statutory remit as provided under section 7 An Garda Síochána Act 2005, as amended.”
However, the Department refused to confirm claims that the lack of incitement to violence legislation was interfering with the work of the gardai.
While both statements provided by An Garda Siochana and the Department of Justice referenced incitement to hatred, neither commented on incitement to violence or crime.
Minister McEntee also said in the exchange in question that the Hate Speech legislation formed an “important programme for government.”
“As Minister for Justice, I will always listen to the Gardai, and what they are telling me right now is that we do not have adequate legislation to deal with Hate Crime and to deal with incitement to hatred,” she said during the press conference.
“Other member states – as I said, we are the only country to not have hate crime and incitement to hatred legislation. No other member state defines hate. No other member state defines the word that they use where they replace it with a different word other than hate. And the sky has not fallen down.
“So the suggestion here that this is radical, that this is vague, this has been in law since 1989 and there has never been a challenge or a problem with defining hate in this legislation.”
“We are the last country in Europe to have Hate Crime legislation. We are the last country in Europe to update our incitement legislation, which is already there, and dates back to 1989, but doesn’t take into account the fact that we now live in a digital world,” she said.
In response, former Attorney General and former Justice Minister, Senator Michael McDowell, said that the claim was not true, adding that incitement to crime is, and of itself, a crime. Senator McDowell told Gript’s Ben Scallan that incitement to violence is “age old.”
The 1994 Public Order Act says, “it shall be an offence for any person in a public place to distribute or display any writing, sign or visible representation which is threatening, abusive, insulting or obscene with intent to provoke a breach of the peace or being reckless as to whether a breach of the peace may be occasioned.”
The Criminal Procedure Act of 2010 (Section 5 (1) (D)) also says it is an offence to incite violence or the threat of violence to a person.
Campaign group Free Speech Ireland, commenting at the time, said it was “extremely worrying that the Minister responsible for the Hate Speech Bill backs the most basic knowledge of Irish criminal law,” saying the claim was “incorrect.”
When the people she is supposed to control, refuse to back her…. it says two things…
Time to go
The hate-speech laws are complete rubbish that are not needed and it is only the Globalistss in Brussels and Geneva who want them!
They should call it what it is, a dont speak against the kakistocracy policy of marxist un indoctrination because taytos hubbie wont be able to sell his puberty blockers bill.
Is that true? It would be incredible that the husband of the minister for justice is allowed to perpetrate such damaging chemicals as medicine on kids for profit! If true, It also says something about McEntee that she would live with such a person! These have been banned for kids in many countries, including the UK! Was Oscar Wilde and AlanTouring not chemically castrated using similar drugs in prison and are now exonerated?
Try not to laugh in disbelief as you read pat…lol https://gript.ie/the-double-standard-around-helen-mcentees-husband/
Thanks for the link James! Laugh? Cry you mean! This looks to be pure evil to me! First, every damaged child should be allowed to sue the doctors who prescribed those things and the Irish government for not recognising that their justice minister had so much to gain from ruining children’s lives, by not taking action on these drugs much much earlier! Additionally, All the kids who are damaged should be allowed to sue Simon Harris personally for not kicking McEntee out… !
You are welcome sir. Im sure you have read alot of the stuff im telling people and alot of it seems completely off the wall and unbelievable but under no uncertain circumstances, these parties are evil beyond words and children are a commodity to these people to be traded, experimented on and used. Our parties are paid and work for pedophiles who want to depopulate our country and this is another mechanism to do it through sterilization and vaccines as well. pregnant women lost their child or had still births from vaccines and more people are sterilized by them. https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-08-03-analysis-miscarriages-stillbirths-linked-to-covid-vaccines.html
story down post office tis morning that strange lights were seening in the sky over the tipp waterford border at back of newcastle and couple of bottles of the holy water were missing (@@)
Knit him a pair of balls and he might find out what it means to be a man. Once he get used to having balls he might decide to claim he is a male.
I would do tammy but i dont think he could tell me what a man is…..lol
After I read all the below notes, I am writing this one, as a logical progression:
When one delves down into this scandal around puberty blockers and vaccines, one has to ask is that why Simon Harris is pushing the Hate-speech laws so vehemently? Is it to stop people discussing their mis-deeds over the last years? How could they support any decisions he made around puberty blockers? If they did? E.g. Have they being taking money in any form from the pharaceutical industry? We know there are close ties there over various government colleagues? These questions all need answering! A government should be 100% open with all facts, when it comes to children’s health? In the same way, there are many many questions around the vaccine and why an emergency-approved vaccine that didn’t work was allowed to dominate and ruin the entire nation?
If they manage to push the hate-laws through, then they can bury the truth and ban us all from knowing or talking!
Correct and now you know why I am so enthusiastic about have their accounts audited Pat. Thats the piece of the jigsaw that is missing. All these policies going through the dail are either from the eu, for blackrock and vanguard or from their donations and lobbying activities. Lobbying should be banned as well as donations from special interests. If we look at darragh, he has share in reit who is buying up the properties in ireland and keeping house prices high for example. How the hell is he minister for housing. Ryan is a communist who wants our cars gone but yet he is minister for transport. Taytos hubby works in the pharma industry that produces puberty blockers and she wants gender ideology hate legislation. Map is a pedo sympathizer and is minister for kids who are disappearing right now. Its literally all on front of peoples faces. Martin does not even recognise our constitution and is minister for joining the global wars and removing our sovereignty. You would literally want to check yourself into a mental asylum if you consider voting for these people we have now. They sure as shit are on the take. Pachal has shares in pharma. You can see a full list of stuff of special interests which are in my view conflict of interests. https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/register-of-members-interests/ Also check lobbying.ie for who they are lobbying for.
The Bill is all about burying truth and quashing dissent. Even Stevie Wonder could see that.
Nice synopsis.
she will do absolutely anything to pass the blame to others of her own failings this doesn’t even shock me anymore in all honestly i thought Leo was bad enough but this woman is on another frigging level she is the biggest security risk out there
She is a simpleton.
That’s all she is James. I’m shocked at her ability to humiliate herself. It’s not normal
She’s a big risk, but is far from the biggest one – she’s not smart enough for that! Ol’ Cabbagehead Ryan and his mate Wodewick are what I’d call sociopathic threats to our future. All the rest at this stage are little more than ‘nodding donkeys’, willing to do the bidding of Davos, Brussels, or the UN.
Among the many stupidities advanced by McEntee is that new laws are needed because we live in a digital world.
As always, she makes an assertion and then doesn’t have the nous to expand or back it up.
Could anyone tell me what offenses are enabled on line that were not already an offense?
~
The ability to re-define an offence, based of the non-defined word ‘Hate’. New offence = partaking in a discussion that goes against their narrative and which they do not like, to stop people talking and discussing online! von der Leyen said that the EU’s ‘Digital Service Act’ was introduced to stop online paedophilia. It was broadly laid out, that it covered everything. Now the only area that it is not used for is online paedophilic activities. It was just a scam to gain control of the social media narrative!
If she wanted to do something about paedophilia, they could start with several members of the commission and numerous MEPs in the european greens and socialist parties who tried to legalise it.
Including the child molestor Daniel Cohn Bendit who got kindergarten children to fondle him, calling it “an incredibly erotic game”.
He bragged about this in several television interviews and put it in his autobiography.
But that didn’t stop the European Commission awarding him European Leader Award.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eF_1SjuvzPI&pp=ygUeRGFuaWVsIGNvaG4gYmVuZGl0IHBhZWRvcGhpbGlh
https://www.euractiv.com/section/future-eu/news/verhofstadt-cohn-bendit-get-european-leader-award/
Great follow-up piece to Ben’s question. Again what real journalist are suppose to do.
Most are only thinking about how can they please the government of the day in hopes that they will be asked to come work for them in the overflowing government spin offices. Congratulations to Ciara Phelan, Chris Donoghue and Sarah Bardon all former journalist who joined young Simon recently in government buildings.
More black n tans been ordered to the front line for the illegal immigration enforcement. They really are not getting the message here are they. https://www.thejournal.ie/gardai-to-be-released-from-desk-jobsto-work-on-immigration-enforcement-6368001-Apr2024/
The goverment is fighting to save their skins! It was them who not only allowed this to happen, but they invested our tax money and promoted it, while demonising anyone who spoke against it.
What about the MI5 Garda commissioner. does he even have an Irish Passport ?
He is masonic. Says it all.
I can honestly say that no one in a position of influence and authority can be trusted and the only person you should trust is yourself. Ask yourself, how many years have you or i trusted people in power or msm or an influencer and relate that to how the country is today. Trust yourself and unifi your own trust with others who trust their own judgement. I dont this for any benefit to myself, i do this to tell people the truth so they can make the nest decisions for themselves. There is no benefit to me doing any of this at all and I am not running in elections either. You have to ask yourself with every thing you see, is it the truth or what is the benefit to the person who is saying stuff. Your instinct is your guide and trust it. The beautiful thing about the irish nation is that we are like a little villiage, that is one of the things that makes us irish and why the kakistocracy are trying to kill us, we all band together and the word spreads quickly and their plan has failed because the majority did band together in the end, they just needed different things to convince them and they see it in full display now even if they see it from the perspective that they want to live in peace and these political parties have destroyed that. There is no hope of them saving their skins because they expected us to fight with the illegals and the ngos and antifa, we did not, we put the blame firmly in the correct place which is them. The political parties are terrorists in my view as is drew harris and the upper echelons of the black n tans and nothing more and the majority see this. We are going to see a revolt in the polls of the like the state has never witnessed and once their protections are gone, i would suggest a different country for them to live in. The cabal is lost and anything they do will just inflame rather than detract because we all see them.
Helen appears to be a liar at this stage.
Who knows what the HELL HEL is?
when has that thing ever been truthful
They are setting her up for a serious fall, how serious time will tell, when these useful idiots time is up nothing is off the table
McEntee says: “So, we are behind. We are laggards when it comes to protecting those that are most vulnerable in our society.” Too right, there, Helen – you’re falling waaaay behind when it comes to protecting our most vulnerable – also known as Irish citizens. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you’ve failed miserably. Please, by all means, quit your job while you still can – before you’re turfed out.
I am so sick of seeing this authoritarian clown woman’s face. Begon to history already you utter imbecile, may you never walk down a street in Ireland in peace, that’s your reward for your treachery…
Gobshites leading gobshites, what more can you say.
we need a General Election Now , Sinn Fein is the Party to Get Ireland Back On Track , immagrantion control , mass house building , we need to build up , badly need new bus and train stations , better roads , sinn fein is getting my scratch at voting hall and desent independences like carol nolan and mattie mcgrath that put local people first,ff.fg need to step back to few years on other side,
Is that the same Sinn Fein who wanted to extend the hate speech laws to cover illegal immigrants? … and who wants to re-run the referendums? … and who thinks Ireland if far from full? …and who supports transgerism in Children? … and who calls the Irish too white and racist?
stick to pedaling bikes ,arthur guiness needs a good econamy,no alternative to ff/fg with independence party ,like having 80 micheal lowry”s, how would that work
Sinn Fein Bot huh?
the pedal was invented in the moonshine county of ireland
Just vote him down, keep his shite at the bottom of the thread out of everyone’s way. He’s just trying to clog up the discussions with all of this since his earlier efforts here didn’t work out.
He has invented four or five new aliases since yesterday
thats true and not true , last couple of weeks i followed all of ye down these rabbitholes of hate and thinking i know best , but at weekend i had a bit of enlightment, i have only a few years left and i want to enjoy it with out the hate and losing my valuable time on a mobile phone all day , use ur vote wisely and crawl out of them holes their full of sh……t , and have a lauf and a bit of fun.(SINN FEIN the rabbit said on the way OUT)
you sure about that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9JrtSFd0_s
not sure about anythink no more , when i walk down the town and look around ,it’s ugly……ireland needs to get it soul back.
Wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.