CEO and Founder of The Countess, Laoise de Brún BL, @laoisedebrun discusses the news that the Minister for Justice will appeal the EU Commission decision to fine Ireland for what the Commission said was Ireland’s failure to comply with the EU Council 2008 framework on hate. Laoise explains the nuance of that Council framework and how Ireland has in fact complied. She also explores why the Council may wish to suppress debate and dissent. Laoise points out that one person’s fact might be another person’s hate, given that there is no definition of hatred in the currently shelved Hate Speech element of the Hate Crime Bill.

The @FineGael Govt who have been in power since 2011, created the environment in Ireland that has resulted in the democratic decline @SimonHarrisTD now laments. He’s very late to the party. If he listened to our young people, really listened, & addressed the problems they face, that would be a start. But this Govt selects global issues, instead of doing the job they were elected to do. Protect Ireland’s borders and plan for the next generation of Irish people. It’s their duty and they have failed.

This is a balanced article on @Nick_Delehanty experience of running a small business in Ireland while the Govt raises the costs of doing business here. Increases in minimum wages leads to increasing costs to the employer not just from wages, but from associated taxes & pensions. Then throw in fuel costs - more taxes! All this while the Govt shows little restraint in spending recklessly. They are spending other people’s hard earned money.

"If you don’t subscribe to the blessed consensus in Ireland, they’ll ignore everything that you say or do, until there’s a chance to tell people that something went wrong. And then, it turns out, you were newsworthy all along." johnandsarah.ie/p/the-irish-…

Two things about our health service should worry every patient and every family in this country. First, a HSE internal audit reported in today's Irish Independent found doctors working in our hospitals without garda vetting or overseas police clearance. Of 40 non-EU doctors checked across seven hospitals, six had no record of garda vetting. Overseas police clearance was missing or not up to standard in 11 cases. Only 27 had evidence of English-language competency. Just two of the seven hospitals were fully compliant. Second, if you ask how many allegations of sexual abuse and sexual harassment have been made against people working in our health service in the last five years, nobody seems to know. There is no single HSE figure. Cases are dealt with one at a time, spread across regions and services, and the full picture is never put in front of the public. Both point to the same problem. Basic safeguards are not being applied consistently, and when things go wrong the HSE does not keep proper track of it. We have already seen vulnerable people in disability services and nursing homes failed while warning signs were handled in isolation. Every volunteer coaching an under-10s team has to be vetted. Patients are entitled to the same assurance from the people caring for them. The vast majority of doctors, nurses and staff in our health service are decent and dedicated, including the many overseas doctors we badly need. They deserve a system that does its job properly. So do the patients who trust it. You cannot fix what you refuse to check and refuse to count. I will be pushing for full transparency on both.

In Ireland we are running to stand still. “Consumers are facing higher gas & electricity prices, dearer health insurance premiums, increased mortgage repayments & more expensive streaming costs. Workers will also face a hike in their PRSI contributions.” #UnaffordableIreland

Unions, the NHS, the Australian Human Rights Commission, multiple governments around the world… all have sided with men going into female changing rooms, even branding it as a civil rights issue. It’s sick.

Four out of five men who "identified" as women in our prisons were sex offenders

BREAKING IRELAND 🇮🇪 Deer Park Hotel Howth: 175 Ukrainians living rent-free in a 200-bed hotel. Out by 8 Oct. Moving into Claremont Howth luxury apartments, 100+ units handed over while 17,000+ Irish stay homeless. #HowIrelandWorks #HomelessnessIsNotNormal #IrelandFirst RT

The Private Members Bill on Conversion Therapy being placed before the house and discussed again tonight lacks any meaningful evidence of current criminal activity that would be captured in it. To assess this we asked the PSNI for data. The data that could surely back this Bill up. Their response - its too expensive to find that for you... We wonder if it’s like looking for needle in the haystack, a way to delay or that the data just doesn't exist at all?

Wow - absolutely incredible that when debating a bill that people can't talk about the actual wording in the bill. Speaker will be sending letters. If we were criminalising tickling cats - someone asking what a cat is wouldn't be silenced. So why can no one debate the words 'gender identity'. Assembly Live 👇👇 piped.video/watch?v=l18P9LoO…

Good morning and welcome to Day 1 of Sandie Peggie v the Royal College of Nursing at Dundee Employment Tribunal. Proceedings are due to start at 10am. We are not yet in court. Here is Sandie arriving with husband Darren and mum Sheila behind her. Live tweets will follow...

BARBARA McCARTHY: In Sweden, exit poll data showed 67% of voters with a non-European background backed the centre-left. In Berlin, 51% of Muslims voted for die Linke. The people who can decide future elections are here and arriving in greater numbers. gript.ie/what-we-can-learn-f…

Why is the Speaker blocking scrutiny of this Bill. If it cant be defined why is it being proposed in law??

On my way up to Dundee to cover Sandie Peggie v RCN. I will be live-tweeting from court tomorrow. This is entirely funded by subscriber donations. If you'd like to donate to get a special subscriber-only email after each day's hearing, please use the link in the next tweet.

€860 for less than half a tank of home heating oil for a 89 year old woman. The is 3 weeks of her total income and it wont last until Christmas. The government are taking €180 of this in tax.

When we're suddenly at the point where 23% of people living in Ireland are foreign-born, why are we being told it's racist even to talk about concerns around this massive demographic shift?

Elizabeth Eddy asked for the female category in the National Women’s Soccer League to be protected. For this she was denounced by her team-mates – including one who had helped plan her engagement – as ‘racist’ and ‘transphobic’. A pleasure to interview her telegraph.co.uk/football/202…

European countries gathered this crime data. In Ireland, campaigners say requesting the same information was racist. Watch the full video: piped.video/watch?v=j1pE2Tvy…