Following confirmation from the Justice Minister, Helen McEntee,
that the proposed incitement to hatred elements of the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred
and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 (the
"Bill") would be removed, the necessary
amendments were introduced and the revised Bill has now been signed
into law.
As discussed in our previous insight, the initial wording of the
draft Bill sought to repeal the current hate speech offence in the
Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 (the
"1989 Act") and replace that with
various new offences, namely:
(i) incitement to violence or hatred on account of certain
defined protected characteristics;
(ii) condonation, denial or gross trivialisation of genocide,
war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace;
and
