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Council of State to advise President on Bills - Irish Times
Carol Coulter - Saturday, July18, 2009

President Mary McAleese has called a Council of State meeting for next Wednesday to advise her on the quesion of referring two Bills to the Supreme Court. They are the Defamation Bill and the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill.

The fact that the President is considering referring both of these bills is very surprising. Perhaps it was to be expected in the case of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill, after the letter of protest from over a hundred lawyers, but in the case of the Defamation Bill, Ahern's railroading of the bill through the houses of the Oireachtas seemed to have been successful.

If either Bill is referred to the Supreme Court and found unconstitutional, it will fall. If found to be constitutional, the President will sign it into law and no further constitutional challenge can then be taken.

If either of these bills is found to be constitutional and is signed into law by the President, it is my understanding that the only way it can be removed in future is by referendum.

Rather than creating a ridiculous offence of blasphemy it would have been far better to remove the legislative requirement from the constitution by referendum.

The minister claimed that a referendum would be too expensive at the moment. He knows full well that a question on this removal could be put to the electorate along with the Lisbon treaty but he dare not.