The consultation was launched in October and has been described as the “first phase” of a wider update of criminal law on hate speech and hate crime.

A separate consultation on hate crime legislation was pushed back to next year to allow the Department of Justice to complete research on the effectiveness of the different legislative approaches in other countries.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission recently reiterated its view that the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 is inadequate to effectively address hate speech and the law needs modernisation and reform.

The human rights watchdog presented a comprehensive report on Ireland to UN anti-racism experts in Geneva.