Controversial elements from the Government's hate crime legislation look set to be dropped.
The Irish Times reports that Justice Minister Helen McEntee has received approval from party leaders to remove parts of the legislation that deal with incitement to violence and hatred – commonly known as the hate speech elements.
The Government is to proceed with other elements of the legislation that deal with hate crime and existing laws around the prohibition of incitement to hatred will remain in place.
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk was among those who criticised the new law.
The Irish Times Political Correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones told The Anton Savage Show the legislation had already gone through the Dáil.
"This has attracted no small measure of commentary and controversy since earlier this year [when] it got into gear," he said.
"What's interesting about the legislation is that it's actually passed the Dáil - it passed the Dáil without much comment and finished the Dáil in April of 2023.
"[The legislation] had gone to the Seanad, including the Independent Senator Michael McDowell who had some issues around free speech and also some issues around definitions of gender.
"Where it really kicked off was after the Government's two referendums earlier on this year, the Family and Care referendums when they were shot down, there was a backlash within the parliamentary parties of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael against what was described at the time as playing to the woke gallery.
"They felt that parts of the of this bill, which would make new offences around incitement to hatred - which have colloquially been termed the hate speech aspects of this bill - that they were an overreaction and that they couldn't sell them, they didn't like them.
"They've been running a campaign against that for several months now".
'Throw it in the bin'
Mr Horgan-Jones said the Government has now made its intentions clear.
"The legislation itself has been in a sort of limbo in the Seanad but the Government has been promising that it will introduce amendments to smooth things over - but nobody knows exactly what they are until now," he said.
"It turns out the step they're going to take is effectively just take that entire part of the bill, which deals with the prohibition of incitement to violence or hatred, and throw it in the bin.
"They're keeping the other parts of the bill which relate to hate crime.
"What they are going to do is bring forward legislation which will make hatred, when it can be proved, an aggravating factor.
"So assault or damage to property - when proven to be aggravated by hatred or motivated by hatred - will attract tougher sentencing.
"But all the various incitement, distribution, all those kind of things, they're going to be taken out of the legislation and junked."
'A done deal'
Mr Horgan-Jones said it is possible the legislation could be looked at again.
"Government sources yesterday were saying, 'Look, maybe the Justice Committee can have another look at this - we don't want to leave it die entirely'.
"But the plain and simple truth of the matter is that insofar as this Government is concerned, this is a done deal."
A similar law introduced in Scotland saw police receive some 10,000 calls in just over eight days.
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