Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

——from the church. Likewise, we have heard comments on the President of the Czech Republic and we need to be particularly cautious in this regard. During the referendum on the Lisbon treaty, it was clear that many people had grave doubts about many issues involved. At times there was even a suggestion that the whole position was not put before the electorate. Therefore if we criticise the President of the Czech Republic for making his views known — I am in favour of the Lisbon treaty — we may be sending out the wrong message and we need to be careful in that regard.

Any statements we had in this House were not in intrinsically good debates. Each morning on the Order of Business we all request debates and there are fewer constraints on statements in particular. I would not suggest or agree that some of the excellent views, which are obviously difficult to get across on the Order of Business, should not be put on the record of the House because there is an interaction between Members of the House, where we are learning from each other. If one looks back at the statements this week, one could not genuinely point to any single one that might be regarded as a filler or superfluous in any way. There will be contradictions here on different views. We can argue one way when one issue comes up and another when that suit us.

I noticed criticisms recently of the Catholic newspaper, Alive, from people who supported the Lisbon treaty, of whom I am one. There was criticism simply because the newspaper took a different line on the Lisbon treaty. There were even suggestions that the cardinal should use his position to put an end to that publication. That is not right, it is completely wrong. An editorial decision was made on the part of that newspaper and we are sending out the wrong message, which could be interpreted as muzzling a counterview in this debate.

The three points I make, while they form a different viewpoint, are relevant to the debate on free speech, which should always be promoted, unless it interferes with law and order etc. Otherwise, we should be very careful in our restrictions.