Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)

It is better than Stephanie. I get Stephanie a lot.

The rise in hate speech in recent years both online and offline is very real, measurable and corrosive and causes great harm to those who fall victim to it. In 2022 alone the Garda reported a 29% increase in hate speech and hate-related incidents. Marginalised communities, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities are the communities bearing the brunt of this violence and hate speech. As legislators we have a duty of care to protect them not just in principle but in law. Ireland was given two months to begin implementing the EU hate speech laws or face being taken to the Court of Justice of the EU. The date for that legislation to be passed is 7 July of this year.This is not about criminalising free speech. We all support free speech. Hate speech legislation is about criminalising incitement to hatred and violence. We see threats made online every day to attack legislators like ourselves, gardaí and people involved in solidarity movements. Many attacks specifically target women in the public eye. Threats of sexual and physical violence, including death threats, have been made. Political representatives have seen a notable increase in this behaviour in recent years.

In addition, the United States Secretary of State recently threatened visa restrictions for foreign nationals working in regulators simply for doing their jobs. This amounts to threatening Coimisiún na Meán staff for doing their jobs and responding to EU directives. That type of interference is a threat to the Digital Services Act. We need to be clear that there can be no tolerance of the intimidation of Irish public servants for doing their jobs. We cannot allow multinational platforms or foreign states to dictate what protections we can or cannot give the people of Ireland. It is unacceptable ethically, politically and democratically.

The Social Democrats believe in freedom of expression. We believe it is the cornerstone of our democracy. However, so too is the freedom to live without fear, especially fear stoked by hate and weaponised online. We need to have a debate in this Chamber about ensuring the right of our public servants to do their jobs free of intimidation so they can do their work and respond to what we, as legislators, instruct them to do with our democratic mandate.