Brandon Scott
Barrister Grace Sullivan has warned that the Government’s proposed hate speech bill could leave religious groups and pro-life advocates open to accusations of hate speech. Ms Sullivan suggested that many won’t fully grasp the far-reaching implications of the bill until it is passed into legislation and enforced in society.
Speaking with The Sunday Independent, Ms Sullivan stressed that “one of the fundamental rights protected under the Irish Constitution is the right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions. It is one of the foundations of a democratic society and it is in everyone’s interests that it be preserved.”
Calling the bill “restrictive and undemocratic”, Ms Sullivan was fearful of the “problematic” nature of the proposed bill “due to its vague wording”.
She warned that, under the proposed bill, it will be an offence to “incite hatred” against an individual or a group on account of “certain protected characteristics” – but “there is no clear definition of what ‘inciting hatred’ means”.
Outlining where the bill could cause problems, Ms Sullivan said certain views on transgenderism could leave people open to accusations of hate speech.
“One of the protected characteristics in the bill is ‘gender’ – and is defined in the legislation as ‘the gender of a person or the gender which a person expresses as the person’s preferred gender or with which the person identifies and includes transgender and a gender other than those of male and female’.
“One could conceive of disagreements with this very definition of gender,” she said. “Certainly a diverse number of religious groups would disagree with this definition.”