Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. The point I was making is that it will be open to us in the future to see if any mischief emerges from the new changed situation. I had no problem with the existing constitutional provision because it was so harmless but I have some sympathy with the idea that in its absence, one might have kept the legislation, since it was already there, and doing no harm but in some way signalling the respect that is due to people's religious beliefs. One can argue it both ways: that the constitutional provision without the legislation would have been adequate; or that the legislation without the constitutional provision would have been adequate. The question Senator McDowell is raising for us is whether in the absence of any constitutional reference or any legislative prohibition whatsoever on blasphemous matter we are exposed to a situation of unnecessary, intentionally injurious, extreme attacks on religion, in a way that is neither civil nor conducive to proper public debate, or at least that is my understanding of what he said.

I refer to what the Minister of State said. Anything that involves the invocation of religious singularity or anything that seeks to identify this State, this nation, with any one religion, to the exclusion of expressions of solidarity or acts solidarity with people of other faiths or none would be very bad indeed and I commend the Minister of State 100% on what he said. However, the single most abused, tortured, attacked and persecuted group in the world today are Christians. We do not talk enough about that. This is not put Christians above Muslims, Yazidis or people of no faith. If someone is persecuted for being gay in a country, we should condemn that and act in solidarity with that person. It is not nothing that the vast majority of people in the world today who are persecuted are Christians. Within the Christian faith, there have been abuses by Christians-----