Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-23
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. I welcome the overall intention of this Bill but I too have reservations, similar to Senators Keogan and Higgins. Terrorism remains a real threat across Europe and beyond. It is important that our laws are updated to deal with the new challenges we face, particularly in relation to online radicalisation, recruitment and terrorist financing. However, I wish to hear the Minister of State’s thoughts on the section on public provocation. No one wants to see people encouraging or promoting acts of terrorism, and that should be absolutely against the law. My concern, however, is that the wording in this section is quite broad and leaves a lot open to interpretation, and we know where interpretation can get us. The Bill talks about messages that could be seen as glorifying a terrorist activity or could reasonably be construed as encouraging terrorism.
The difficulty is that these are not always black and white questions. What one person sees as glorification, another may see as political commentary, protest or advocacy. The examples we used earlier included Kneecap in Britain. More recently, we have had fuel protests here. Everything is subjective and up to interpretation.
Our political climate is constantly changing and it is hard to know what the country or world will look like in five or ten years' time. With the hate speech legislation, we saw how the boundaries of acceptable speech were twisted and skewed. It is not unimaginable to think that such legislation could have a chilling effect on protest or advocacy. We have seen in England how peaceful protestors, including people in their 70s and 80s, have been arrested in connection with demonstrations linked to Palestine Action. The Minister of State cannot guarantee that the State will not pinpoint similar groups in the future when it comes to this section on public provocation.
Whether people agree with protests, or some protests in particular, is beside the point. Broad powers can sometimes be used in ways that many would never have anticipated. Of course, we need strong laws to tackle terrorism, but we also need strong protections for freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest. This section does not yet provide enough certainty and is too open to interpretation, but I welcome the Minister of State's thoughts on this.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-23