Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

One of my frustrations in this regard is that on Committee Stage we tried to open the Minister's mind to accepting some form of tolerance of religious advertising. However, he proposes to delete section 41(6) but not to follow through and accept my amendments. In other words, he will make the Bill more restrictive. With regard to religious advertising, section 41(4) states, "A broadcaster shall not broadcast an advertisement which addresses the issues of the merits or otherwise of adhering to any religious faith or belief or of becoming a member of any religion or religious organisation", while the Minister proposes to delete section 41(6). Does that mean,for example, The Irish Catholic, can be advertised on television or radio? I do not see how that is necessarily the case. A judgment call is required of the authority as to whether anything in the newspaper promotes joining the Catholic faith.

At least section 41(6) makes it clear religious newspapers, magazines or periodicals can be available for sale but the Minister is saying that will no longer be catered for in the legislation and the only subsection that could guide the authority is section 41(4), which is very restrictive. I attempted to open up a discussion on a slightly more liberal approach to religious advertising because society is mature enough to deal with that but what is proposed shuts off the original provision, which is unfortunate.

See this speech in context