The Irish hate speech bill

Erik Strand, 13.05.2023

Ireland is about to pass a law that will punish not only hate speech in public, but also possessing hateful material on one’s devices. One can read more about the law following the links below.

‘Massive Attack Against Freedom of Speech’: Elon Musk Condemns Ireland’s Orwellian Hate Speech Bill

New hate speech laws kick up a storm in Ireland

When such a law is passed, one should take a look at who supports it, and who opposes it. As one can learn from the link above, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee is off course among those supporting the law.

In this article from 27.04.23, one can read about the passing of the law in the tower house of the Irish parliament. A significant minority tried to remove the most draconian parts of the law. However, when this minority did not succeed in removing the worst parts of the proposed law, only 14 members of parliament voted against the law. 110 members of parliament voted in favour of the law. One can see who supported the proposal and who opposed it on the Irish parliament’s website.

The following 110 members of parliament supported the proposal:

  • Andrews, Chris.
  • Berry, Cathal.
  • Brady, John.
  • Brophy, Colm.
  • Browne, James.
  • Browne, Martin.
  • Bruton, Richard.
  • Buckley, Pat.
  • Burke, Colm.
  • Butler, Mary.
  • Byrne, Thomas.
  • Cahill, Jackie.
  • Cairns, Holly.
  • Calleary, Dara.
  • Canney, Seán.
  • Cannon, Ciarán.
  • Carroll MacNeill, Jennifer.
  • Carthy, Matt.
  • Chambers, Jack.
  • Clarke, Sorca.
  • Collins, Niall.
  • Conway-Walsh, Rose.
  • Costello, Patrick.
  • Coveney, Simon.
  • Cowen, Barry.
  • Cronin, Réada.
  • Crowe, Cathal.
  • Crowe, Seán.
  • Daly, Pa.
  • Devlin, Cormac.
  • Dillon, Alan.
  • Donnelly, Paul.
  • Donnelly, Stephen.
  • Donohoe, Paschal.
  • Duffy, Francis Noel.
  • Durkan, Bernard J.
  • Ellis, Dessie.
  • English, Damien.
  • Farrell, Alan.
  • Farrell, Mairéad.
  • Feighan, Frankie.
  • Flaherty, Joe.
  • Flanagan, Charles.
  • Fleming, Sean.
  • Foley, Norma.
  • Funchion, Kathleen.
  • Gannon, Gary.
  • Gould, Thomas.
  • Griffin, Brendan.
  • Guirke, Johnny.
  • Haughey, Seán.
  • Heydon, Martin.
  • Higgins, Emer.
  • Howlin, Brendan.
  • Humphreys, Heather.
  • Kehoe, Paul.
  • Kenny, Martin.
  • Kerrane, Claire.
  • Lahart, John.
  • Leddin, Brian.
  • Lowry, Michael.
  • Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
  • Madigan, Josepha.
  • Martin, Micheál.
  • Matthews, Steven.
  • McAuliffe, Paul.
  • McConalogue, Charlie.
  • McGrath, Michael.
  • McGuinness, John.
  • McHugh, Joe.
  • Mitchell, Denise.
  • Moynihan, Aindrias.
  • Moynihan, Michael.
  • Murnane O’Connor, Jennifer.
  • Nash, Ged.
  • Naughton, Hildegarde.
  • Noonan, Malcolm.
  • O’Brien, Darragh.
  • O’Brien, Joe.
  • O’Callaghan, Cian.
  • O’Callaghan, Jim.
  • O’Connor, James.
  • O’Donnell, Kieran.
  • O’Dowd, Fergus.
  • O’Gorman, Roderic.
  • O’Reilly, Louise.
  • O’Rourke, Darren.
  • O’Sullivan, Christopher.
  • O’Sullivan, Pádraig.
  • Ó Broin, Eoin.
  • Ó Cathasaigh, Marc.
  • Ó Cuív, Éamon.
  • Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
  • Ó Ríordáin, Aodhán.
  • Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
  • Quinlivan, Maurice.
  • Rabbitte, Anne.
  • Richmond, Neale.
  • Ring, Michael.
  • Ryan, Eamon.
  • Ryan, Patricia.
  • Smith, Brendan.
  • Smith, Duncan.
  • Smyth, Ossian.
  • Stanley, Brian.
  • Stanton, David.
  • Tully, Pauline.
  • Varadkar, Leo.
  • Ward, Mark.
  • Whitmore, Jennifer.

The following 14 members of parliament opposed the proposal:

  • Boyd Barrett, Richard.
  • Collins, Michael.
  • Connolly, Catherine.
  • Fitzmaurice, Michael.
  • Healy-Rae, Danny.
  • Healy-Rae, Michael.
  • Kenny, Gino.
  • McGrath, Mattie.
  • McNamara, Michael.
  • Murphy, Paul.
  • Nolan, Carol.
  • O’Donoghue, Richard.
  • Smith, Bríd.
  • Tóibín, Peadar.