A refugee rights organisation has raised concern that exceptions to a proposed new hate speech law remain “overly broad”.

The group echoed a previous submission by Pavee Point objecting to an exception for ‘political discourse’ saying there had been ‘hate speech’ directed against Travellers and Roma people during elections.

This comes despite the new text of the bill, published last Friday evening, including a new, alternative test for alleged offences that will not require motive to be proved and is designed to make prosecutions easier to obtain.

The Bill does still allow a defence of “a reasonable and genuine contribution to literary, artistic, political, scientific, religious or academic discourse”.

Fiona Hurley, the policy manager of the refugee advocacy group, Nasc, told The Irish Times that these defences “remain overly broad”, adding, “It is unclear to us what constitutes political discourse.

“Will speech that would otherwise constitute incitement to hatred from anyone standing or signalling their intent to stand for any public office be exempted?” she asked.

A person who seeks to incite hatred against a person or group with one of the protected characteristics may be guilty of an offence which could carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.