Make blasphemy a referendum issue
The Seanad should take careful note of what has been said by a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in relation to adding blasphemy to the Defamation Bill. His comments were reported in yesterday’s newspapers. I ask the House and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to consider a proposal I would like to make. According to the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, he needs to resolve a constitutional dilemma in this area by means of legislation or by means of a constitutional amendment. I am a member of the All-Party Committee on the Constitution which recently recommended that the relevant section of the Constitution should be deleted.
Senator Regan is also a member of the all-party committee, which clearly recommended that this provision should be removed from the Constitution. That view is clearly shared across the board in these Houses. That is the correct way to proceed.
My suggestion to the Minister, through the Leader, is that if the parties in the Oireachtas agree that a series of amendments to the Constitution should be put to the people at an appropriate time, perhaps, although not necessarily, in October of this year, a referendum on the question of blasphemy should be put on that list of matters to be determined by the people on referendum day.
It would be proper to remove the provision in question from the Constitution. If the Minister’s comments are to be taken in good faith, it appears he believes he must do one thing or the other. He seems to be concerned about the possibility of addressing this issue by means of a constitutional amendment. We do not need to have a referendum on this issue tomorrow or the day after. It does not even need to take place this year, although it should not be put on the long finger.
In fairness, this matter has been on the table for ten years. We have lived with other interpretations of the Constitution. We have not rushed to introduce legislation to cater for the outcome of the X case, for example, although I believe we should have done so. In such circumstances, I propose that the Leader of the Seanad should try to secure all-party agreement to ask the Minister to address the matter of blasphemy by means of constitutional amendment at an appropriate time in the future. We should not have to deal with the legislative distraction the Minister is considering.
Dear Senator:
There is no prohibition of blasphemy contained in the present Irish Constitution. As a barrister, you should know this. A referendum to remove or allow such a prohibition is therefore unnecessary unless we, as a nation, would wish to prefer some religion or religions whilst discriminating against others. If you have a specific case or cases in mind, or a specific transcription of parliamentary debates, would you please link to these directly, rather than linking to “Dáil Eirann Debates”, or to a specific page entirely unrelated, or to the correct RTÉ page (your link deals with a Victims’ Rights Bill)?
It is true that Ireland is, for the most part, a “Common Law” jurisdiction. Decisions of our Justices are therefore generally binding on the court in which the Justice finds himself or herself, as well as on lower courts. Nevertheless, no court may make any valid ruling inconsistent with the Irish basic law - Bunreacht na hÉireann.
I have taken your advices at http://senatoralexwhite.wordpress.com/contact-alex/ and appreciate these. I do wonder that these advices were so concisely directed to my situation. This suggests that Labour Teactaí Dála are indeed able to receive and to respond to emails. I had previously doubted this because no reply issued.
I do wish you the best of luck in the June 5th elections.
What will you do for Ireland if elected? Do you have any specific plans?
Dear Ben,
Many thanks for your comment. I can tell you that the constitution currently states at Article 40.6.1 that: “The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.”
Many thanks for the best wishes.
Regards
Alex