Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This morning, the national conservatism event in Brussels resumes after a tumultuous attempt to cancel it yesterday. It is deplorable that the mayors of several districts in Brussels cancelled the event, citing concerns over what they pathetically deemed public safety. Today, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Hungarian President, Viktor Orbán, are expected to speak. Is being the head of a democratic European nation now a safety concern in the EU’s home city?

Cancel culture is re-emerging as a destructive force that will challenge democracy. If the hate speech Bill becomes law, and it may return as it was published yesterday in the summer legislative programme for this House, we would see similar events occur here at political and public events. I had hoped the Government would listen to the public backlash against the hate speech Bill and other looming legislation the Government is proposing to approve. I was wrong to hope the Government had any care for public opinion on civil liberties or the crucial facets of the democratic process.

My colleague Senator Michael McDowell spoke yesterday on the EU migration pact and rightly pointed out how this House was becoming a rubber stamp for legislation and little more. Poll after poll, village after village, it is clear the Irish people want serious, if not radical, reform of the migration system in this country. The EU migration pact will have a paltry-----