Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 8, line 28, to delete “religious”.

The purpose of this amendment is to remove as a defence for hate speech material that something is a reasonable and genuine contribution to religious discourse. Many very positive messages of solidarity, support and charity stem from religious discourse. Many other messages are issued - theological points and so on - under the guise of religious discourse. All that of course is absolutely fine and the State should protect all of that religious speech and the right of people to propagate their religion. I am for a secular society. People often focus on one part of that, which is that the State does not support any religion, but another important part is that the State defends the right of those who are religious to put forward and propagate their religious views.

A certain portion of hate speech, particularly homophobic, transphobic or sexist hate speech, in society is sometimes put forward under the guise of being a contribution to religious discourse. Fundamentally, that should not be a defence. Hate speech is hate speech even if the person involved says it is his or her deeply held religious view that gay people are sinners and, therefore, it is appropriate for him or her to incite violence against them. That should not be a defence and, on that basis, we seek the deletion of the religious ground as a defence.

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