Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he has not picked up on “huge pressure” from the European Union over Ireland’s hate speech laws, but added that “attacks on particular ethnic groups” are “not acceptable.”
Speaking to Gript outside Government Buildings on Tuesday morning, the Taoiseach addressed reports that Ireland has been given two months by the European Commission to update its hate speech laws or face legal action from the Court of Justice of the European Union.
“Well I haven’t picked up huge pressure on it, if I’m honest,” Martin said.
“We do know that there’s a new EU directive in respect of hate speech, and we already have hate speech legislation on the statute book in terms of 1989. And more recently, we passed laws with more severe penalties for any crimes pertaining to criminal acts being carried out as a result of hatred towards a particular group, for whatever reason.”
When pressed on the fact that the EU was demanding additional speech-specific measures beyond existing legislation, Martin said that Ireland would engage with the Commission in the usual manner.
“In matters of that kind, if there are always EU directives that the EU Commission may say we are not fully implementing or we may potentially be in breach,” he said.
“We engage with the Commission on those matters as a matter of course, and we’ll we do that here as well.”
He went on to say that while constitutional protections remain in place for free expression, there were forms of public discourse that society should work to minimise.
“But standing back from it all, our Constitution protects freedom of speech, freedom of academic autonomy,” he continued.
“On the other hand, there is no need for some of the focused attacks on particular ethnic groups or on people because of sexual orientation. Those types of attacks are not acceptable in our society and shouldn’t be acceptable. And they can lead to attacks on people as well.
“So I think we need to, as a society, work to reduce the coarseness of language in public discourse, the aggression that’s pretty evident on social media today. And we need more space for discussion and debate.”
Asked directly if the government would update legislation if presented with a two-month ultimatum, Martin said that such matters would be dealt with through continued engagement.
“We’ll watch what happens and engage,” he said.
“It’s not going to be that a two-month deadline hits and something terrible happens. There would be engagement with the EU Commission. We’ll see what comes out of that.”
The exchange follows a recent warning from the European Commission as part of its monthly infringement package, stating that Ireland has two months to begin implementing stricter hate speech laws or face potential referral to the EU’s top court.
“While Ireland notified some transposition measures in the meantime, the Commission considers that Ireland still fails to transpose the provisions related to criminalising the public incitement to violence or hatred against a group or a member of such group based on certain characteristics, as well as the conducts of condoning, denial, and gross trivialisation of international crimes and the Holocaust,” the EU said in a statement last week.
“Therefore, the Commission has decided to issue reasoned opinions to Ireland and Finland, which now have two months to respond and take the necessary measures. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union.”
While the government has pointed to the existing Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, the Commission maintains that this does not go far enough – particularly in relation to speech-based offences such as incitement and Holocaust denial.
Although hate crime legislation was introduced in December 2024, it did not include hate speech measures, which were previously removed from the bill following internal government disagreements and significant controversy around free speech concerns.