Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The amendment is to a section I am considering deleting. That is the reason I was anxious to spare Senator Hannigan some time. Section 35 deals with an arcane branch of our law. Part 5 deals with criminal liability. If I may, I will revert to section 34, which is linked to section 35. Section 34 purports to abolish the common law offences of criminal libel, seditious libel and obscene libel and section 35 proposes to establish an entirely new section dealing with the publication of gravely harmful statements. All of these matters in sections 34 and 35 are criminal and not civil matters. Article 40° of the Constitution provides that the publication of blasphemous, seditious or obscene material is in itself an offence. As legislators, we must have regard to that in whatever proposals we draw up in these areas.

I am not satisfied with the current arrangement in sections 34 and 35. Following discussions with the Attorney General, I am reviewing the provisions of sections 34 to 36, inclusive, to ensure that whatever legislation we bring in respects the existing constitutional provisions and goes no further than them.