The controversial hate crime Bill is now not expected to return to the Oireachtas before the summer recess, casting doubt on whether it will be enacted at all, reports the Irish Times.

Citing unnamed sources, the report says the incomplete Bill will not be taken up again until the autumn at the earliest, which leaves little time for it to be passed before the legislative session breaks for the general election.

The Bill passed in the Dáil but stalled a year ago in the Seanad after Senators raised several significant questions about it, not least its failure to define hatred. Mr McDowell also asked the Department of Justice to explain “what is intended by the term ‘transgender’ and the phrase ‘a gender other than those of male and female’” in the definitions of the Bill. He did not receive an explanation.

The Department of Justice has previously declined to give examples of speech which is legal but will be criminalised by the Bill if it is passed