Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

For clarity, the route is that the Bill has passed the Dáil and it has come to the Seanad. If it is amended in the Seanad, it will go back to the Dáil. If those amendments are accepted in the Dáil, the Bill then passes the Houses of the Oireachtas. It does not come back to the Seanad for a second time. It goes to the President for signing.

I am not sure whether the OPLA would give wording on the dangers of going straight to the Supreme Court with a Bill once it passes the Houses of the Oireachtas. That is at the discretion of the President. In all fairness to Michael D. Higgins, he has been slow to recommend that a Bill goes to the Supreme Court. I believe the petitioner is entitled to a rationale as to why it is inadvisable to seek that a Bill goes before the Supreme Court before it has time to bed in and we see what emerges. Ultimately, I believe that if this Bill passes in its current form, somebody will be charged with hate speech and then it will finish up in the Supreme Court and maybe the European Court of Justice.