Rónán Mullen (Independent)

Senator O'Toole and I might agree to disagree on that. One cannot have an advertisement for the Franciscans who might want to advertise or encourage people to consider vocations to the religious life. This suggests to me that a new intolerance has taken hold, almost by accident. What was originally a very sensible exclusion of a certain kind of advertising is now acting in a quite oppressive way.

It is in this context that I ask the Minister to consider the even more astonishing anomaly that there is no proposed ban in this Bill, unless my amendment is accepted, on psychic services, tarot cards and such like. People who live for others, who do not charge money, who promote a communitarian-based vision of society, may not advertise their way of life. However, others purport to tell you what will happen in your life tomorrow or next week and they prey on the gullible. We have heard in recent times just how much these psychic services and these supposed tarot card operators and various such tellers of the future prey on gullible, vulnerable people and some people have lost astonishing amounts of money when they have dialled up these services hoping for good news about their future and so on, only to be exploited. It was recently stated by one of the operators of these psychic services that he never used them himself. It reminds me of the story of the clairvoyant who was sacked by the tabloid newspaper. She was informed of the news by the editor in a letter in which he began, "As you will have no doubt foreseen, we will be dispensing with your services".

It is a parable of our individualistic society that people who adhere to a particular vision of life which happens to be a religious vision with which not everybody need agree, but who none the less promote a message that is broadly speaking one of harmony and solidarity, may not advertise themselves as membership of their organisation or way of life while these charlatans can advertise as they do. I have not seen them on RTE but I certainly have seen them on other channels, including TV3.

There is another anomaly to be found in the ban on religious advertising and the way in which it is qualified. The legislation purports to allow a religious newspaper to advertise for sale or supply or that a particular event or ceremony associated with any particular religion can be advertised. On one reading of the Bill, however, this means that The Irish Catholic can say it is on sale, but cannot say "New survey says religion is good for you". That would be prohibited under the legislation, at least on my reading of it. Presumably also, the Archbishop of Dublin could advertise that a Corpus Christi procession is taking place somewhere in the city but he could not say, "Come along; you'll have a great time", because that would be promoting the merits of the religion. It would be like the GAA saying, "Come to Croke Park to see the match next Sunday", but not saying, "You'll have a great day out", because one cannot promote the merits involved. How ridiculous would that be? Meanwhile, another more secular newspaper could advertise a feature in its weekend edition saying that religion is going down the tubes. We have an anomalous situation therefore because the Government is trying to re-establish healthier lines of Church-State dialogue, recognising that the plurality of faith communities and humanist communities is good for civic society, yet those people are hobbled in advertising terms. Others who exploit people by charging a fortune for tarot cards, psychic services and palmistry, are not so constrained, however.

Amendment No. 31 provides that, "A broadcaster shall not broadcast an advertisement which is directed towards the promotion of sex services." It would be easy for politicians to be concerned about being considered moralistic. Not too long ago, however, Senator O'Toole and I spoke on the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act and tabled amendments that would have criminalised those using persons involved in prostitution. Senator O'Toole eloquently observed that there was an anomalous situation whereby pimps and prostitutes could be criminalised but not their clients. On that occasion I asked, as did other Senators, what message that sent out concerning women's dignity and the respect that is due to people in this society.

It is remarkable that it is lawful to run advertising, albeit late at night, which is targeted at vulnerable, sad people, inviting them to spend lots of money on the telephone to talk to somebody who supposedly is interested in talking to them. It is time for some leadership, which is why I have tabled these amendments. As I said on Second Stage, I do not consider it paternalistic to table such amendments. It is allowing media operators to be paternalistic for us to abandon the field and not legislate in the common good.

In summary, I am asking the Minister to scrap the restriction on religious bodies from advertising membership. I am not suggesting that there do not need to be controls of a certain kind, but I am sure it is not beyond the genius of the Parliamentary Counsel to provide a legislative framework for bona fide advertising, if that is what these organisations wish. I have not been lobbied to date by any of them to argue for it. As a matter of civil rights, however, they should be allowed to advertise. I cited the simple example of the Franciscans who might want to promote vocations to the religious life. There should be some mechanism whereby it is possible for them to do that. By the same token, we should move to exclude the possibility of advertising by charlatans who hold out sexual, fortune-telling or other nonsensical services to vulnerable people to raid their pockets by holding out some kind of false hope in their lives.

I have no problem if people want to establish such channels, but we are talking about public service broadcasting. For example, one could have a gambling channel which would be available to people on a pay-per-view basis whereby they make a conscious decision to buy access to it. Channels that come into an ordinary person's living room, however, which they might just happen on at night because they pay the basic television licence, should be regarded as privileged space. We must ensure there is nothing on those channels at any hour of the day that is based on falsehoods or false promises, which exploits people or promotes negative attitudes to other citizens. I am moving the amendments on that basis and I hope they will be considered favourably.