Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

There is a saying that the past is a foreign country but for many people in Ireland today, this Dáil is becoming a foreign country - a Dáil that they no longer recognise as representing their own views. This Dáil is the most draconian Dáil in generations. Unfortunately, there is an authoritarian streak running through the political establishment in Ireland and it is shocking citizens across the country. The Government is trying to implement a number of Bills which are significantly reducing people's human and democratic rights. The Government is trying to implement the hate speech Bill that censors people's views. The Government has produced a Bill under which person can be sent to jail for speaking. The Government is looking to criminalise citizens who speak respectfully on issues that they disagree with, which is the opposite of what a liberal democracy means. A liberal democracy is built on the idea that the competition of ideas is the engine of the democratic process.

The Government's censorship Bill deletes the right to respectfully but robustly challenge the convention of the establishment bubble here in Leinster House. That Bill is so poorly worded and no one, not even the Minister who wrote the Bill, is sure of exactly what the definition is and how the act will land people in jail. If I ask a child what something means and they give a circular definition back I could probably accept that. I would not accept it from an adult and I certainly would not accept in a law that seeks to criminalise people on that circular definition for speaking. The Green Party's Seanadóir Pauline O'Reilly has stated in public that all legislation is about the restriction of freedom and that this is exactly what we are doing here. However, that is not true. All legislation is not about the restriction of democratic freedoms. Legislation should be about the defence of democratic freedoms.

The Government is pushing Ireland into an outlier position. Internationally Ireland is gaining notoriety right across the world for the authoritarian streak that is happening here. We are becoming infamous in this respect. I did an interview at RTÉ recently and basically the interview only happened because all the international media are identifying Ireland as this hotspot of reduction of human and civil rights at the moment.

During the Covid crisis we saw another example of the authoritarian nature of the Government. The Government created two tiers of freedom. People were free to go about their business if they had a Covid pass but were restricted from public spaces if they did not, despite the fact that both cohorts were getting Covid and spreading Covid at the same time. Just a couple of years ago because of Government policy young people were being beaten off the streets by police in riot gear for having a pint while at the same time thousands of older people were dying in nursing homes because the State had pushed thousands of patients out of hospitals and into nursing homes without checking them for Covid.

This Bill is another example of that tendency towards authoritarianism in this Government. It simply restricts the human and civil rights to protest. The right to protest is one of the most important rights that we have especially in Ireland. As an Irish republican, I recognise that the civil right to protest was critical in the attainment of equal rights for people in the North of Ireland. The unionist parties and the RUC, like this Government and many on the hard left, also sought to ban public protest and to jail people and beat them off the street for protesting. It is incredible that 50 years after those civil rights marches from Coalisland to Dungannon as well as on Bloody Sunday, Sinn Féin, North and South, is joining the Government to ban the human right to protest. I should not be surprised. Sinn Féin used to stand against the section 31 censorship. However, a few weeks ago in this Chamber yet again Sinn Féin supported the censorship aspects of the hate speech Bill.

I believe one of the reasons that Ireland has become so authoritarian in recent years is that the Government and the so-called Opposition are simply on the same page on many issues. Today on a rake of issues there is hardly a cigarette paper between the Government, Sinn Féin and the Trotskyite hard left parties on many issues. To many people this feels stifling. To many people this feels like a political cartel. Aontú is the only political party in this country pushing back against this oppressive uniformity that is happening.

Censorship and protest bans used to be the tools of right-wing dictators. The left used to be a bastion of free speech and democratic rights but shockingly that has flipped in recent years. In many ways the Government and the Opposition are proof of that. If a government such as this one is willing to delete the right to life of tens of thousands of the most vulnerable living human beings, deleting the right to protest and the right the right to free speech is not an incredible jump for it.

I personally do not agree with some of the protests that happen outside of hospitals. I personally do not agree with small white coffins being used outside maternity hospitals. I have always asked people to demonstrate, protest and speak in respectful manner. However, the right to protest and the right to free speech are not just for the people the Minister agrees with. The right to protest and the right to free speech are fundamentally also for the people he disagrees with. If he does not hold that tenet firmly, then a democratic process does not work whatsoever.

There are many concerns with this Bill. Some people protest outside a GP's surgery on Saturdays, for example, when the surgery is closed. They do this purposely not to interfere with any patients who use those GP services. They do it to inform people of what is happening behind those walls. However, the Bill will delete this simple act of letting people know what is happening. It is as if the Minister is trying to hide what is happening. What would happen to a mother who offers financial help and support to another mother who is about to have an abortion for economic reasons? We know that the vast majority of abortions in this State are for economic reasons. They are for-austerity abortions. It is incredible that the parties that call themselves pro-choice implement economic policies that make mothers feel that they have no choice. It is an incredible situation but that is happening at the moment. If a mother or any citizen were to offer economic support to a mother in that case, they would be banned from doing so by the provisions of this Bill.

Recently in Britain, a woman was arrested for standing silently in prayer outside an abortion clinic. A police officer went up to that woman and asked her what she was thinking. In answer to that, she said she was involved in silent prayer. In that scenario, she was arrested for that. Are we really coming to that situation here that people standing silently are to be arrested for the thoughts going through their minds outside an abortion clinic?

We are not talking about banning freedoms in small area. Dublin has dozens if not hundreds of these types of locations and 100 m zones would literally seal off significant sections of city from conversations - maybe one sister banned from having a conversation with another sister because of this law.

The Minister is not banning on the basis of evidence. An Garda Síochána came before an Oireachtas committee on this and said there was no evidence in relation to the current situation around harassment and intimidation. They said they already had the legislation. The Commissioner, Drew Harris, said existing laws were adequate to deal with protests outside GP centres and hospitals that provide abortion. Certain hospital groups, in retort to TDs who blatantly told lies here in this Chamber around this issue, said they themselves had not received any official complaints from service users, their partners or accompanying support persons or staff about protests outside hospitals.

The truth is this is an evidence-free Bill. It is ideological and yet another step on the well-travelled road of this Government deleting human and civil rights. There will be a more enlightened generation in this country. Martin Luther King said the arc of history bends towards justice. Unless the Minister reverses the direction in which he is going, future generations will look back on his actions with horror.

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