New hate speech laws will give 'priority over what can and can't be said' about protected groups.
That's according to one interest group, which is protesting against the upcoming legislation.
The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill is currently in the Seanad.
Sarah Hardiman from Free Speech Ireland told The Anton Savage Show there are already specific protections in place.
"It fundamentally goes to the question of, 'When and why should the State be permitted to legislate for anything?', but specifically legislate speech," she said.
"There is this concept of free speech, everyone is aware of that.
"In the Irish Constitution, and in the European Charter of Human Rights, the codifications of free speech are actually slightly restricted.
"We don't have an absolute free speech.
"Article 40.6.1 of the Irish Constitution has free speech and it protects it, but it also limits it slightly.
"It says in the interest of public order that there would be a slight restriction".
Prohibition of Incitement To Hatred
Ms Hardiman said this can be seen in the 1989 Prohibition of Incitement To Hatred Act.
"The beauty of that Act is that it really does protect where speech can be truly dangerous and actually cause death, physical harm, genocide of an individual or group of people," she said.
"So we have a restriction on free speech... we have a law on the book that protects people.
"But this is a fundamentally different law that actually seeks to repeal the 1989 Act".
Ms Hardiman said this new legislation prioritises certain groups.
"The fundamental issue is that they decide [sic] to have protected categories," she said.
"So there's a set of categories that appear to be prioritised in this legislation.
"It says that if there's hatred against these groups of people... that you fundamentally effectively have a priority over what can and can't be said about them".
'Really troubling'
Ms Hardiman said some of these groups are not clearly defined.
"The legislation is actually so badly defined, particularly the aspects around gender are really, really troubling," she said.
"They're so troubling that Senator Michael McDowell wrote to [Justice] Minister Harris this week.
"He said we have the Gender Recognition Act and we have definitions of man and woman within that.
"Now you have this bill... and they refer to transgender without actual definitions of transgender, or what people who don't fit the male or female gender [are].
"It's not even clear what it's talking about," she added.
Donald Trump Junior, son of the former US president, has also taken aim at the proposed new legislation labelling it as 'insane'.
He criticised the changes in response to a tweet calling the changes 'radical'.
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