Ms Fiona Hurley:

I thank the Senator for the question. We are very concerned about the defence, specifically, for incitement in the context of political discourse. We argue that the same probably also applies to academic discourse. There is no definition of what makes a genuine and reasonable contribution, which is very worrying. We know from the way the Bill is worded that this political discourse must refer to speech outside the Oireachtas because the Oireachtas is protected separately.

We also know, and Mr. Collins and other Pavee Point representatives will be able speak to this as well, that the lives of people from migrant and ethnic minority communities, such as Travellers and Roma, become the subject of elections. We have seen, particularly in some of our EU counterparts, how nasty and simply racist some of that discourse has been, especially around asylum seekers whose lives are now almost seen as inherently political. We are very concerned about that type of exemption proceeding in its current breadth. We hope that answers the Senator's question.