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Earlier this afternoon, I spoke with barrister and founder of the women and girls advocacy group The Countess about the amended Hate Crime bill which was fast-tracked through the Seanad last week and which is scheduled for only 90 minutes debate time in the Dail later this week. Huge problems remain with this farce of a bill specifically around gender-related issues and dichotomies between equalities under the law as provided under the Irish constitution and the proposed establishment of special groups with special protections as championed by the amended Hate Crimes legislation.
From its inception the Hate speech bill or Criminal Justice (INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE OR HATRED AND HATE OFFENCES) Bill seems a particularly Fine Gael driven piece of legislation. During our discussion one point raised was the possible Achilles heel of Fine Gael - Over 50% of sitting Fine Gael TDs are not seeking re-election and that one possible targeted method of attacking this bill, at this late stage, might be to focus attention on the constituency offices of retiring TDs with e-mails, phone calls, drop ins etc. They should have nothing to lose. A list of the sitting Fine Gael TD’s not seeking re-election is provided below.
Joe McHugh, Donegal TD
Michael Creed, Cork North West TD
Brendan Griffin, Kerry TD
John Paul Phelan, Carlow-Kilkenny TD
Michael Ring, Mayo TD
David Stanton, Cork East TD
Richard Bruton, Dublin Bay North TD
Charlie Flanagan, Laois/Offaly TD
Fergus O’Dowd, Meath East-Louth TD
Paul Kehoe, Wexford TD
Ciaran Cannon, Galway East TD
Josepha Madigan, Dublin-Rathdown TD
Simon Coveney, Cork South Central TD
Leo Varadkar, Dublin West TD
Joe Carey, Clare TD
Damien English, Meath West TD
Heather Humphreys, Cavan Monaghan TD
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