NEWTON'S OPTIC:TRUST THE chattering classes to overreact to Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern's plan for a blasphemous libel clause in the new defamation Bill.
It has been widely reported that Ahern wants to outlaw anything “grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion”, where the blasphemer “intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage”.
However, this is not the actual body of text proposed for the Bill. It merely represents the spirit of the Constitution.
Some people have chosen to take this representation literally and Ahern may even have encouraged them to do so but that is only a reflection of their own superstitious nature. In their heart of hearts, nobody really believes it.
There is no great mystery over why Ahern might allow this and a host of equally incredible things to be repeated at the present time. The Government has only a wafer-thin majority and it needs to show that this wafer is not completely insubstantial.
Despite Ahern’s intentions, which can always be objectively inferred from his statements, there is little chance of his proposal becoming law.
Ahern is not infallible, of course. No man is. But more importantly, his clause was only conceived a few weeks ago and is therefore not even embryonic legislation.
Ahern might feel that the instant a justice minister conceives of a clause it takes on a life of its own and must be delivered to the Oireachtas. But in reality, at this early stage, it is only a clump of thoughtless words and there are any number of ways to dispose of it.
Ahern might also feel that any clause he supports is to some degree verging on statute.
But in practice, verging statutes have no power at all, no matter how much the Minister wants to believe in them.
Opponents of the blasphemous libel clause would be well advised to go over Ahern’s head and speak directly to the Taoiseach.
A surprising number of people still think they can only speak to the Taoiseach through a Minister but this is pure nonsense spread by Ministers to protect their own position. Any citizen can speak directly to the Taoiseach at any time, although there is no guarantee that he will answer back.
Nor should anyone approaching the Taoiseach assume they might end up speaking to the Tánaiste instead. This assumption of Mary is pure nonsense as well.
It would clearly have been preferable if things had never reached their current stage and that is something Fianna Fáil must consider for the future. One obvious solution would be to stretch a rubber membrane over Ahern’s office door, permeable only to his genius and the Aids virus.
Another would be to ban him from all contact with men of the same political inclinations.
Alternatively, the Government could just hope that he only comes up with new ideas on the two days a month when they might actually work.
In the meantime, we may wait for the blasphemy clause to die a lingering death. Or would Ahern like some help to put it out of his misery?