Results 1-11 of 11 for blasphemy speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: ...what we are doing in these Houses at this moment to the level of a joke. It was the widely respected former Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Keane, who said in 1991 that a referendum to remove the blasphemy provision would be a time wasting and expensive exercise, and he was correct. After wasting millions of euro on a referendum to abolish a dead letter constitutional provision last October,...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: ...opportunity in diplomatic fora to condemn them for making such bogus comparisons.It is an intellectual and political weakness that fails to see that distinction. The abolition of the offence of blasphemy has been packaged by the Government as if it is some great advance for human freedom, correcting a serious injustice. The Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, introduced the Bill in the...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: ...book on a related issue by Tom Holland. It is impossible to escape religious cultural inheritance, as the Senator's comments showed. On the issue of whether statutory provision for an offence of blasphemy ought to have been made, it is almost as though it is open to us to see whether the lacuna that will be created by the legislation will be abused and lead to the possible mischief of...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: Not only blasphemy laws.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Nov 2018)

Rónán Mullen: .... It is now the weapon of choice for all kinds of populist proposals, or for providing cover or distraction from other controversies or Government failures. Apart from the recent abortion and blasphemy referendums, there is talk of the constitutional protection of women who choose to remain in the home being challenged by the Government in a referendum. I am sure the proposed referendum...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Nov 2018)

Rónán Mullen: ...country. I think that creates an additional onus on us to speak out. The second extraordinary case is that of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was recently released from prison having been charged with blasphemy some years ago in Pakistan, where the crime of blasphemy is seriously a problem. I first raised the case of Ms Bibi in 2014. She spent eight years in solitary confinement...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Oct 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I received my booklet from the Referendum Commission this morning relating to the blasphemy referendum, although I have not had time to look at it. I am sure it is fine. I have raised the issue of the scandalous waste of €3 million of public money in running a referendum to solve a problem that simply does not exist. We heard from our colleague, Senator Boyhan, about the...

Seanad: Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Repeal of offence of publication or utterance of blasphemous matter) Bill 2018: Second Stage - An Bille um an Seachtú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Cion a aisghairm arb éard é ní diamhaslach a fhoilsiú nó a aithris) 2018: An Dara Céim (20 Sep 2018)

Rónán Mullen: ...of the CervicalCheck programme. What does it say about the Government that the first Bill to be put before the Dáil this term is not related to these issues but to remove the constitutional offence of blasphemy? It is almost hard to believe but taxpayers have forked out more than €150 million on holding referenda since the year 2000, with each trip to the polls costing...

Seanad: Thirty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Repeal of offence of publication or utterance of blasphemous matter) Bill 2018: Second Stage - An Bille um an Seachtú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Cion a aisghairm arb éard é ní diamhaslach a fhoilsiú nó a aithris) 2018: An Dara Céim (20 Sep 2018)

Rónán Mullen: ..., not the Archbishop of Armagh or Dublin or any other religious leader that one might care to mention, writing in the LRC report on this topic in 1991, who said that a referendum devoted to removing blasphemy "would rightly be seen as a time wasting and expensive exercise". How right he was and how true that still is. Why are we here ramming this through the Seanad in just one day? Is...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Rónán Mullen: ...bring forward this section in the legislation, but I have been and am persuaded by the Minister's essential argument which is that there is a gap, that the Constitution provides for the offence of blasphemy and that the Minister is giving expression to that in circumstances where in the Corway case it was held that there was no definition in law to give effect to that. The Minister has...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (20 May 2009)

Rónán Mullen: ...kind of issue that brings out the nuance in all of this. There was great generosity and great neglect, sometimes fite fuaite le chéile in a very unacceptable way. Let me raise the issue of the blasphemy amendment very briefly. It seems those who talk about it being a distraction are the ones causing the distraction. There are arguments for and against the proposal. We need to have a...