Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am taken aback by the content of the Minister of State's reply. There are two sides in a referendum, namely, those who are for the referendum proposal and people who are opposed to it. Voters are free to go to the polls and decide which way they want to vote. We have a situation in which a very one-sided interpretation of the powers and guidelines of the regulator has been effected with the result that a very simple image had to be taken down. One can walk past this House any day. I was with some people as I came in yesterday morning and they practically got sick when they saw the large-scale posters of foetuses in various states on display outside. I pass churches regularly. For the most part, the posters outside churches are simple "No" posters but I am regularly told about some of the material that is available inside churches.

Can the Minister of State confirm that churches are, by and large, charitable organisations? If the Charities Regulator is going to take action against a simple poster which contains nothing offensive and deem it to be political, is the Minister of State telling me, as holder of his office, that the same regulator will go into churches and check out the material there? I am not suggesting the regulator should do that, rather I am suggesting it is not being even handed. There is an interpretation of the law there. The Act lays down the circumstances in which the authority can, after consultation with gardaí, exclude a body from the register. That was the threat against the Project Arts Centre. That is where something is unlawful, contrary to public morality, contrary to public policy, or in support of terrorism or terrorist activities. Does the Minister of State think the Project Arts Centre, which has operated in Dublin for 50 years, does any of those things?

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