Hate crime law will not prevent people from expressing opinions, says McEntee

The bill to criminalise hate speech has attracted criticism, with some senators concerned about the fact that hate is not explicitly defined.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee said that the 'vast majority' of people are in favour of the measures. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Justice Minister Helen McEntee has warned that culture wars around transgender rights and other issues will continue even after controversial hate speech laws are introduced.

Ms McEntee has strongly defended the proposed laws around hate crime and hate speech, claiming they are needed to protect people who are currently too afraid to leave their homes.

The bill to criminalise hate speech, which is currently going through the Seanad, has attracted significant criticism, including from Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr.

However, Ms McEntee said: "There are people in this country who don't want to leave their house because they're afraid.

"That's nothing to do with commentary and culture wars that might be happening separate, it's because of their race, it's because of their sexual orientation, it's because of their nationality, it's because they have a disability.

"This legislation is about protecting them from hate crimes where they are physically assaulted, where there are assaults on their property and other forms of crimes, but also where is language use that incites that type of violence against another person."

A number of senators also raised concerns around the fact that hate is not explicitly defined in the bill when it was debated earlier this week.

But Ms McEntee said there is a very clear understanding among the judiciary, the Director of Public Prosecutions and An Garda Síochána of what that word means.

"The reason that we haven't defined hate is by defining hate and using another word, you then have to try and describe essentially what that means," she said.

"You're potentially leaving a gap where certain prosecutions might fall or where it may be more difficult to have prosecutions under this legislation. And that's based on advice from not just the current Attorney General, but the previous Attorney General."

We're not preventing people from expressing views, expressing opinions, expressing facts."

Ms McEntee said that the "vast majority" of people are in favour of the measures and noted that there has been a 29% increase in reports of hate crimes to the Gardaí.

She said we have to "rise above" commentary around what is happening in other jurisdictions and around culture wars that may be breaking out.

"Even names that have been put to me, be it JK Rowling or others, these are not people who have been prosecuted, these are not people that have had charges brought against them. This is commentary that is happening in a public domain. 

"While that happens, we're actually forgetting about the people that are at the crux of this legislation."