U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) sent a letter Tuesday to Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason expressing strong concerns about legislation that would undermine Irish citizens’ freedom of speech.
Vance has raised questions for lawmakers in Ireland, who are proposing a bill that could jail citizens for merely possessing material that criticizes certain protected characteristics, like gender or national origin.
Ireland Sen. Pauline O’Reilly spoke to the Seanad Éireann, where she claimed the law protects people from “discomfort” associated with views about their identities.
Vance said the U.S. condemns similar “censorious conduct” from China, Myanmar or Iran, explaining the U.S. imposed visa restrictions on government officials from the latter because they were believed to have been censoring “peaceful protesters” and “inhibiting their rights to freedom of expression” and peaceful assembly.
Vance’s letter references the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022, which is supported by Irish politicians such as O’Reilly, who is in the country’s Green Party.
“We are restricting freedom but we’re doing it for the common good,” O’Reilly said in viral remarks earlier this year as she discussed the legislation. “Yes, you have rights, but they are restricted for the common good.”
The Ohio Republican warns that this Irish bill is “full of vague prohibitions that would chill important public debate if they were to become law, particularly with respect to the most controversial and publicly significant matters.”
“I am alarmed that one of our closest friends, a democracy dedicated to upholding cherished freedoms, should undertake such legislation,” Vance wrote.