Twitter boss and space explorer Elon Musk says that Leo Varadkar 'hates the Irish people' as Dublin government tries to push through 'thought crime' bill

The polymath and serial entrepreneur made the comments amid fallout from the Dublin riots on Thursday night, sparked by a serial stabbing in which the perpetrator is rumoured to be an Algerian national (something which is still unconfirmed).

Three children from the ages five and six were hurt, as was a school assistant.

The assistant and one of the child victims remain in hospital.

The street disorder which followed the incident was blamed by Garda chief Drew Harris on “a complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology” while Mr Varadkar was quoted as saying that “our incitement to hatred legislation is not up to date for the social media age… we need laws to be able to go after [Twitter accounts] individually… they’re to blame and we’re going to get them”.

This is a reference to the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022, now making its way through the Seanad.

To be guilty of a crime under this bill, and get a potential five year jail term, someone would merely have to be “reckless” as to whether a tweet or Facebook post could “incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons”.

It has been described by many people from Lawyers For Justice Ireland to People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy as a “thought crime” bill.

Mr Musk had already decried it as “a massive attack against freedom of speech” earlier in the year.

• Full story here: What is in Ireland's new so-called 'thought crime' bill, how many years in jail can you get, and which parties are backing it?

Following Thursday’s riot, a Twitter account under the name Sir Doge of the Coin (with almost 202,000 followers) said: “Irish children were stabbed by a foreign man in Dublin yesterday, yet the government twist the story and use the backlash as an opportunity to pass new hate speech laws.

"The Irish government want all of your freedoms.”

Mr Musk replied: “Ironically, the Irish PM hates the Irish people.”

He also went on to tweet: “Suppression of the Irish people is the real crime…

"The current Irish government clearly cares more about praise from woke media than their own people!”

Meanwhile in the wake of the rioting, a video clip has also begun circulating widely online, showing Mr Varadkar speaking about racial quotas.

In the footage of the Dail debate on June 11, 2020, he said there is “a need to set a target to have a number of people from ethnic minorities in areas of the public service”.

He said: "We have a health service that is very diverse, although less so as one goes up towards the senior positions, not so much in the Garda, the Defence Forces, the education sector, as the Deputy mentioned, and not at all in the Civil Service, which is very white, including the Department of Justice and Equality, for example.

"That needs to change.

"We need to have a target for people who come from ethnic minority backgrounds but also dedicated recruitment campaigns to encourage people because we need to ensure that a generation of young people of colour growing up in Ireland see black and brown school principals, judges, and perhaps Cinn Comhairle in the future. Who knows?

"Visibility and opportunity are very important.”