In Ireland, there is no specific statutory offence of blasphemy, even though Article 40 of the Constitution declares that " The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent material is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law".
Shortly after the common law offence of blasphemous libel had been abolished in England and Wales, the Irish Minister for Justice announced the government's intention to amend the Defamation Bill to create such a crime in a statute.
The Irish Supreme Court concluded that the law was not clear as to the elements of the offence of blasphemy and upheld the refusal of the High Court to authorise a private prosecution under Article 40.
The last prosecution for blasphemy had been in 1909 and assuming that the offence was now a dead letter, in 2008 the Joint Committee on the Constitution recommended amending Article 40 so as to remove all references to blasphemy.
The government is proposing to however, amend the Bill to make the publication of blasphemous matter an indictable offence, subject to a maximum fine of Euro 100,000.
The proposal has attracted considerable criticism, not least from the Freedom of the Media at the Organisation for Security and Co - operation in Europe, who warned that the amendment ran counter to Item 2 of the Organisation for Security and Co - operation in Europe Act to which Ireland is a signatory.
