Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I welcome the Minister's response and the sea change in the Government's approach to the hate speech legislation. His predecessor, Deputy McEntee, was a big proponent and driver of this hate speech legislation, so I commend the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, on what he is doing. This House should always protect freedom of speech. We saw in Germany recently that pro-Palestinian protesters were treated in the harshest way possible. In this country, people's views of and sympathies towards the Palestinian people are very different.

In relation to the movements from the European Union, is the message from this Government that it is in compliance and will not be co-operating with any diktat in relation to hate speech legislation?

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