Blasphemy Amendment to Defamation Bill to pass into Law on July 10th 2009

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Sunday June 28, 2009 11:48 by Guillotine

Mc Dowell's 2006 Bill to be guillotined

A series of 17 Bills which are in the queue for legislation for the Dáil period
2009 are now subject to guillotine debate and are expected to be passed into
law. One of the list is the 2006 Defamation Bill which was part of a twinset
introduced to the Dáil by now defunct Minister for Justice and Barrister
Michael Mc Dowell.

The 2006 Bill has been re-introduced and is in its final stages with The
Irish Times reporting that it is one of 17 pieces of legislation subject to
Guillotine debate and expected therefore to pass into law on July 10th
2009. The Bill includes the Blasphemy amendment which Mr Ahern TD
insists was written into the legislation 'under advisement of the AG'.

The whole list of Bills that are subject to FF/Green Guillotine is available at
the Irish Times website. Mr Ahern has retained the criminalisation element
but has added the proviso that work considered of 'artistic merit' would not
be included in the criminalisation amendment which begs the question
who gets to judge the issue, given the Arts Act 2003 which gives another
FF minister (Martin Cullen TD) an overweening influence in choosing the
board of the Irish Art's Council and in funding discretion.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2003/en/act/pub/0024/ind....html