asked the Minister for Justice whether any authority is vested in him at present whereby the publication of newspapers and periodicals which deliberately libel the nation might be prohibited.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Anti-National Newspapers and Periodicals: Prohibition of Publication.
34.
The Minister for Justice has no such authority nor would it be possible, in my opinion, to frame legislation to provide the powers that the Deputy has in mind that would be acceptable and workable and would not do more harm than good.
The Minister will agree, will he not, that the remedy, the cutting down of the circulation of these imported newspapers, lies in the hands of the Irish people, but would the Minister not agree that recently there was cause for his Department to take definite steps and to initiate a prosecution, due to the fact that these cross-Channel publications incited violence? As indicated in Deputy Giles's question, violence, in fact, did occur. Will the Minister not agree that he had every grounds for putting a halt to the gallop of these cross-Channel publications?
I would agree if the Deputy suggests that, if a remedy is required, it does lie in the hands of the people themselves, but I would not agree that any of these articles advocated violence or that violence took place as a result of the publication of the articles in question. I do think that the people who are responsible for the violence did not act in the interests of the State because the State has nothing to hide in this question and the more publicity we would have got in respect of the particular incident, the better it would have been for the State.