Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A constitution is no place - I speak as a criminal lawyer - to declare acts to be criminal offences. That is a matter for statute and for legislators. Those anachronisms should be deleted also. Again, text matters. They may not be in use nor prosecuted every day nor anything like that, but they should not be there in our Constitution, just as the references to women's place in the home should no longer be there. I know the Minister of State is aware of that also.

There are three crucial reasons to welcome this legislation. First, this is outdated, and I have explained that with respect to the origins of blasphemy. Anyone who looks at the history of the use of blasphemy offences will be aware of that, particularly when we have a Republic that is, as it should be, premised on the separation of church and State. We have a long and shameful history of collusion between church and State authorities that has manifested in the oppression of women and children from disadvantaged backgrounds, notably in industrial schools, Magdalen institutions and so forth. As we have seen in recent votes, not only in the blasphemy referendum but in the referenda on marriage equality and repeal of the eight amendment last year, we have, thankfully, moved or are moving out of that era, but we still see dominant position for religious instruction in our schooling system. Today, I was proud to support Education Equality which is seeking the moving of religious instruction to at least the end of the school day in our school system so that children of minority faiths or no faiths do not feel discriminated against within the school day. That is an ongoing issue where we see 90% of our primary schools still under the patronage of different religions and predominantly under Catholic patronage. We have not moved fully out of an era where we have undue breaches of the doctrine of the separation of church and State.

The second reason is that the blasphemy offence is not only outdated but also unnecessary. It is an undue encroachment on free speech. Others have spoken about the growing recognition that blasphemy is an obsolete offence across Europe. The third reason, which is important, and I will finish on this point, as others have trespassed on colleagues' time and I will not do that-----