John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As we come close to the end of term, I have a particular bee in my bonnet which, as the House knows, in the past five years has been veritably buzzing with bees most of the time. I refer to Members who introduce legislation, Private Members' Bills or otherwise, which appears on the Order Paper and then appears to die. The purpose in introducing Bills is that they will become law at some stage. The legislative process is not to be used for any other purpose, although it is sometimes misused. To that end, I have already attempted unsuccessfully to have No. 58 on the Order Paper taken. Today I would like to have No. 57 on the Order Paper, the Harmful and Malicious Electronic Communications Bill 2015, debated before this term comes to an end. I know that this is a well meaning and well intended Bill, but it is one which people of a civil libertarian point of view and free speech advocates have been consistently very troubled by because of the potential for abuse, perhaps by a more authoritarian Government than the relatively benign one we have in place.For that reason, as the Bill has come this far in this Parliament, there is an obligation on all of us to see it through if it is really seen as important legislation. If this is the case, let us go ahead and vote it through. If not, let us vote it down. Notwithstanding good intentions and everybody's desire to protect the vulnerable, many representations have been made to me from people who have told me that if correctly applied, existing legislation could provide the protection that is necessary and that there is the potential for abuse and the squelching of dissent within this Bill. I took some fairly substantial criticism, some of it online, when I advocated this position when this Bill was first introduced some months ago. I could have used this Bill to protect myself from some of this but I would not do so. Freedom of speech is part of the deal with a democracy. Part of the deal with free speech is that we hear things we do not want to hear. People have the freedom to say things that I might not necessarily agree with. For all of those reasons, I have been asked by people who are free speech advocates to make sure there is one ringing attempt before this Oireachtas is over to have a proper debate on this Bill and to either see it through or see it off. That is why I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business that No. 57 be taken before No. 1.