Rónán Mullen has said he still has “massive concerns” about the Government’s Hate Crime Bill - despite significant changes to it. 

Last month, Justice Minister Helen McEntee announced that the elements of the legislation that deal with incitement to hatred would be dropped from the controversial legislation. 

On The Hard Shoulder, independent Senator Rónán Mullen said he was “glad” the Minister had announced changes to the bill but he was still troubled by one aspect of it in particular. 

“I still have a major problem with this convoluted and sinister definition of gender which we are seeing for the first time being put into legislation,” he said. 

“I think that ultimately is putting into statute law for the first time that gender no longer means ‘male’ or ‘female’ but it means whatever you [feel] in yourself - neither male or female.” 

Justice Minister Helen McEntee speaking to the media at Government Buildings, 7-8-24. Image: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

The bill defines gender 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.” 

Protection for gender nonconforming people

Fine Gael Senator Barry Ward said the “incredibly broad” definition of gender had been included in the bill on purpose.  

“The very people who are non-normative, who are outside the norm in terms of how they perceive their gender or how they describe their gender, are the same people who are the target of hate crime and, indeed, hate speech,” he said. 

“So, of course the definition has to be broad.” 

Senator Ward, who is also a practising barrister, said there is “oodles of academic evidence” that suggest victims of hate crime need extra protection from the law. 

“If you’re the victim of crime, it is entirely the different the effect on you if it’s because of a characteristic that is inherent to you, that you can’t change, that is part of who you are,” he said. 

“So, if you get attacked because you’re black or African or Protestant or Catholic or Muslim - whatever it is. 

“You can’t change that and the effect of that crime on you is well-documented to be much more serious than a random assault or an assault that is down to something that you can control.”

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Main image: Senator Ronan Mullen speaking in the Seanad. Picture by: Oireachtas screenshot.