Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not have much more to say. I do not care what a person's religious opinions are. I do not care whether a person is a militant atheist or agnostic. My position is that we should not enshrine in law a right to disgust other people on a matter of such centrality to their personality while Article 44.1° remains in the Constitution. I do see that the other side of this coin is Charlie Hebdo. Discrimination between practitioners of various religions is a problem. My view - I say this very carefully - is that the failure of many prominent people in Islam to distance themselves from the death penalties being handed down in certain countries to Christians accused of blasphemy is a black mark against those people, whether they reside in Ireland or elsewhere.

I do not intend to oppose the Bill. I emphasise, however, that in getting rid of what is in the Defamation Act, we are stating categorically that it is henceforth lawful to disgust other people for the purpose of disgusting them and without any other excuse except for the pleasure of attacking their religion gratuitously in the most insensitive way. I wonder whether that will be a positive step forward. My view is that there must be some counterbalancing legislation that does something about community relations rather than simply taking out the scalpel and removing all protections for religion, especially in a context where Article 44.1° of the Constitution is retained.