Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Hate speech and hate crime have become more prominent and divisive in the present era than any other time in history. For example, the American elections, the referendum on Brexit and the pandemic brought these manifestations to the fore. We witnessed misinformation, hate speech, hate crime, xenophobia, racism and conspiracy theories dangerously becoming the norm. Without doubt a need for robust legislation is required and copper-fastened definitions need to be put in place. We agree we need dissuasive criminal sanctions across Europe. However, we must also have a duty to make sure free speech and freedom of expression are equally balanced and protected, as provided by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights. We must also make sure regimes that exploit dignity and human rights are not given impunity through default.

I wish to ask the Minister - and I know there will be further opportunities to scrutinise this proposal - to verify here in the Dáil that no citizen's constitutional rights will be affected by the proposal to extend the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crimes. I am a member of the Oireachtas committee that conducted the pre-legislative scrutiny on the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill. Through this work I have seen at first hand how complex these issues are to regulate. We have grappled with real-life examples from children's rights organisations on the harms of online harassment and bullying but, on the other hand, we have been warned of the danger to democracy that over-regulating speech can bring. The core of this issue is who gets to define "hate" and who gets to enforce punishment of same. We must have a broad and authentic input from all sides of this debate and consider all knowledgeable stakeholders as we do the work on this motion here on this island. We must also take into account that the digital age has revolutionised the way people are communicating across the world and we must make sure it is a tool used for good, not evil.

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