The legislation dealing with the censorship of publications is set out in the Censorship of Publications Acts, 1929 to 1967. The statutory position in relation to the issue of a permit for the importation of prohibited publications is set out in section 19 of the Censorship of Publications Act, 1946.
The policy of successive Ministers for Justice has been to grant permits only in exceptional circumstances where the applicant has established that there is a specific justification for allowing him or her to import a particular publication. A permit is then granted on condition that the said publication is for the personal use of the permit holder and will not be subsequently offered for sale.
Since 1970, there have been 100 applications for permits under section 19 of the 1946 Act, 34 of which were granted, 59 were refused and seven of which were not followed up by the applicant. My Department's records indicate that in general where the application was refused, the applicant was informed that it was considered that the reasons advanced did not justify the issue of a permit.
The legislation dealing with the censorship of video recordings is contained in the Video Recordings Acts, 1989 to 1992. Section 16 (3) of the Video Recordings Act, 1989 provides that the Minister may, subject to certain conditions, grant a permit authorising a specified person to import a specified number of video recordings containing a specified video work in respect of which a prohibition order is in force. Only one application for such a permit has been received in my Department and a decision on this application is pending at the moment.
The legislation dealing with the censorship of films is the Censorship of Films Acts, 1923 to 1992. This legislation, which prohibits the screening in public of prohibited films, contains no provision for the Minister to grant a permit to import prohibited films.
