‘When Trump and Musk have a different view to you, it’s not a bad day at the office’ – Simon Harris on criticism of new hate speech legislation

Mr Harris said he does not take his political philosophy from the Trump family or from Musk and his associates.

Musk and Donald Trump jnr have voiced criticism of the legislation, with Trump branding it “insane” and Musk saying the legislation is “very concerning”.

The Bill, currently going through the Seanad, will introduce laws criminalising hate speech and legislate against hate crimes.

The legislation will criminalise what it calls intentional or reckless communication or behaviour that is deemed likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or persons based on race, colour, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

Mr Harris said there is not much the Government and opposition parties agree on, but that the Dail had “overwhelmingly” passed this legislation.

“It's not about policing thought. It's not about stopping freedom of expression. What it is about though, is keeping people safe, and making sure that people can go about their lives and not be discriminated against.

“And as a result of that discrimination, seeing them often be physically assaulted, or incitement to hatred in relation to them,” he said.

“There's a need for people to take a little step back here.

"Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are protected rights. We have a Constitution and we're members of the European Union and proud members of the United Nations.

“This is a country where only as recently as this week you saw Ireland go up four places in the new Press Freedom Survey. We're seeing our defamation laws being reformed. This is a country that values free speech,” he added.

“It's absolutely your right to say offensive things.

"That's absolutely right in a democracy, but it's not your right, absolutely not your right, to say something that incites hatred or danger towards another person. It’s absolutely not your right to try and whip up homophobic activity and homophobic violence against people.

"It's absolutely not your right, and when you talk to people who are who are often subject to such attacks, I think they will tell you what they see and what they feel when it comes to hate speech.

"So there's been an attempt by some, for whatever reason, to go about misrepresenting that. Best wishes to them. It's their right in a democracy to do that.

"But when you see Donald Trump, junior, senior, whatever, a member the Trump family and Elon Musk opposing your legislation, and when you see Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, the Greens, Sinn Féin, Labour – all these people coming together to vote in favor of something, you know, there's no conspiracy,” he concluded.

Mr Harris was speaking at the opening of a new state-of-the-art control centre for the Dublin Metropolitan Region at Heuston Station.

The Regional Control Room was moved from the former Harcourt Square Garda Complex in November last year after more than 40 years there.

The €40m investment will see the control rooms of Dublin City Council, An Garda Siochana, Irish Rail, Dublin Fire Brigade and the National Ambulance Service served at the new centre at Heuston Station.

The Garda section has a staff of 100 comprised of both Garda members and Garda staff, and answers and despatches resources to approximately 800 to 1,000 999 calls each day, and about 39,000 per month.

These include 999 calls, alarm system alerts and calls through agencies such as Dublin Fire Brigade and the Ambulance Service.