Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wanted to discuss this further, however. The Minister of State indicated in his speech that he intends to repeal the criminalisation of blasphemy. I should say that when I introduced a Bill to replace the Defamation Act 1961 I, as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, included nothing in respect of blasphemy, although I understand that a subsequent Attorney General was of the view that repealing the 1961 Act without substituting a corresponding offence might itself be seen to be unconstitutional. I doubted that at the time. I thought the provision in the Constitution made the offence of blasphemy much like a common law misdemeanour, something that was unlawful and punishable. I thought that the phrase "punishable in accordance with law" did not require a statute but merely that there could be a criminal procedure to punish it and that a just penalty could be applied by the courts, as was the case with many common law misdemeanours for which no maximum penalty was ever set. In any event, the Attorney General who advised the Government after me apparently came to the view that it was mandatory to include in the Defamation Bill some alternative criminalisation of blasphemy on the basis that it was requisite on foot of the-----