Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Does the Senator mean even in the paper of record? Senators may recall that this House agreed the deletion from the Bill of a provision regarding the publication of gravely harmful statements, which were in the Bill as originally published. The decision of the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to delete that provision was widely acclaimed. He did, however, indicate clearly both on Committee Stage in the Seanad, on 11 December 2007, and on Report Stage, on 11 March 2008, that we had to address the issue of an appropriate legislative response on blasphemous libel in regard to offences contained in Article 40.6.1o of the Constitution. I would not disagree that the optimal approach, and certainly one which I would find most preferable, would be to abolish the offence of blasphemous libel.