Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said that much of the opposition to the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 is based on “disinformation”.
Speaking before the Seanad, McEntee said that her attention had been brought “to the campaign of disinformation that has accompanied this legislation.”
She said this, “has included misleading claims by certain commentators, and on social media, that the public consultation outcomes have been ignored.”
“It has been said to me time and again that this is not true.” she said adding, that “does not reflect the deep engagement that my Department has had with key stakeholders.”
The Minister claimed that the public consultation was “intentionally wide in scope and included five different strands to try to seek views on the new legislation to deal with both hate speech and hate crime, and how it should be developed.”
“Giving voices to those most affected by hate speech and hate crime was a hugely vital part of this process.” she said adding that despite “some online criticism and commentary being amplified disproportionately”, there has been “overwhelming and significant support for the inclusive and victim-centred legislation.”
She went on to say that the government had received “significantly positive feedback” on four of the five strands of the consultation where the fifth was “an online poll where people had to actively select to take part in it.”
McEntee said this fifth stream contained a “a very high percentage” of claims that “ hate speech did not exist and that this legislation was not needed,”
She claimed that new research by the University of Limerick and Queen’s University Belfast included an Amárach Research survey and was “more representative of the general population” saying that this had shown 82% of those polled favouring the “protection of transgender people in the bill,”
This new research will not be available for months with the only public consultation showing significant opposition to the bill.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee says that "the vast majority of people" want hate speech laws.#gript pic.twitter.com/BZy6MBgKLp
— gript (@griptmedia) June 14, 2023
In a previous report by Ben Scallan it was revealed that 73% of responses received by the government through public consultation were negative.
On the topic of the lack of definition of the word ‘hate’ in the legislation, the minister said she had been advised by the Attorney General and the former Attorney General not to provide a definition for the word saying that “in many other criminal offences “hate” is not defined” and that the word is “commonly understood by the judge”.