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Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 17 Dec 1974

Vol. 79 No. 3

Family Planning Bill, 1974: First Stage.

I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to facilitate family planning, to provide for the control of the importation, sale and manufacture of contraceptives, to repeal section 17 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1935, to amend the Censorship of Publications Acts, 1929 to 1967, to extend section 59 of the Health Act, 1970 and to provide for other matters connected with the aforesaid matters.

I am opposing it.

Since an indication has been received from a Senator that the First Reading is being opposed I now call on the sponsor of the Bill to give a short explanatory statement of the reason why the Bill is being introduced.

The Bill proposes to amend the law relating to the sale, advertisement and availability of contraceptives in the country. The Long Title to the Bill is:

An Act to facilitate family planning, to provide for the control of the importation, sale and manufacture of contraceptives, to repeal section 17 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1935, to amend the Censorship of Publications Acts, 1929 to 1967, to extend section 59 of the Health Act, 1970 and to provide for other matters connected with the aforesaid matters.

This Bill is an entirely new proposal for such change in the law. It has followed some aspects of the Government Bill to amend the law in relation to family planning, but it is substantially different from either the earlier Bill introduced by the sponsors of this Bill—Senator John Horgan, Senator Trevor West and myself—The Family Planning Bill, 1973, and the Government Bill which was laid before the Dáil during the past year.

I believe that Senators must be well aware of the necessity for legislation of this sort. It is a social necessity for the people to have access to information about family planning and for the availability of contraceptives to be regarded as a matter of normal, civil rights for citizens, a right which the law will safeguard and promote despite the different views on the subject of various religious groups.

Senators will be aware from earlier discussion that, following the Supreme Court judgment in the McGee case, it is now legal to import any quantity of contraceptives but it is still not possible to buy or to acquire responsible literature about family planning. I am sure that Senators will feel that this is an intolerable situation which will give rise to increasing social tension and health hazards. Senators are aware of the substantial public interest in this question and of the opinion polls which have shown very definitely that there is a substantial majority in favour of change in the law relating to family planning.

Senators should remember that this is the First Stage of the Bill. They have already got the text of the Bill, which I circulated to every Senator and also to the Front Bench members of the three political parties. Senators, therefore, know what is in the Bill. The public at large do not know and will not know unless this Stage of the Bill is passed. Therefore my appeal to my fellow Senators is a very basic one. Please do not censure the people of Ireland from examining this serious and responsible attempt to change the law relating to family planning. Let the Bill pass its First Stage, let it be published and considered not just by the Members of this House but by the public at large, by those with special interests, such as members of the medical profession, by various interested groups, by the women of Ireland, by our fellow citizens. I say this very seriously because it would be a terrible injustice if we censored this Bill today, killed it before it had any life at all, before it had been debated as a matter of public interest and public concern.

I should like to summarise very briefly the proposals of this Bill which Senators have had before them for some weeks.

I think I had better intervene at this stage and indicate to the Senator that the Standing Orders we are concerned with here allows for a short explanatory statement but does not allow reference to the contents of the Bill, since the question at issue is the publication of those contents.

The explanatory statement is confined to explaining the reasons for introducing it and the reasons why this Bill ought to be published?

I thank the Cathaoirleach for that clarification. The basic reason why this Bill should be given a First Reading today and should be permitted to be published by this House, is that it is a new and serious proposal to change the law relating to the availability of contraceptives. This is a matter of very serious social concern, a matter of common justice and a matter of civil rights to the citizens of Ireland. There will be strong adverse reaction from people outside this country, from many citizens living in this country, and obviously from citizens of Northern Ireland if they see that the Irish Seanad at the end of 1974 did not allow a Bill on this subject even to be published—would not even allow the people to see the proposals. I emphasise that giving this Bill a First Reading, allowing it to be published, does not commit any Senator to voting on the principles contained in the Bill, or prevent any Senator from expressing reservations on particular sections or voting against it when the Bill comes for debate.

In the interest of basic freedom of expression enshrined in our Constitution this Bill should be given a First Reading today. I would remind Senators that the Dáil has dispersed with the First Stage. It is not necessary to go through the process which this Bill is going through today. If I were a Deputy I could have circulated this Bill without coming here today to ask permission for a formal First Stage. At some future time the Seanad might consider dispensing with this stage because if the First Stage is refused, this would amount to blind censorship, the prevention of debate on a very important social issue.

Therefore, since I am urged by the Standing Order to be brief in making an explanatory statement in favour of this Bill, I will not delay the House any longer. I ask Senators, knowing that they do not bind themselves to the subject matter of the Bill, to allow this Bill to be published and give it a First Reading this afternoon.

Senator O'Higgins, who indicated his opposition to the First Reading.

I do not think Senator Robinson can complain about discussion being refused. She has succeeded in the last quarter of an hour in discussing this matter reasonably fully. I do not intend to take up a quarter of an hour. First, I should like to make it clear—I think I should do this in fairness to Senators on this side of the House who may wish to support this Bill—that in opposing it I am not doing so in my capacity as Leader of the House. I am doing so, as I think I am entitled to do, in exercise of my rights as an individual Senator.

Senator Robinson is quite right in pleading that the First Stage of a Bill, effectively, is permission by the House to print the Bill. She has pointed out that the Dáil has dispensed with the First Reading.

My objections to the Bill are fundamental. For that reason I am not prepared to give my assent in any shape or form to any procedure which will or may result in furthering the Bill through this House. I oppose the Bill on the general grounds which I gave in opposing the First Reading of a similarly titled Bill on the 14th November, 1973. I oppose the Bill, having seen its contents, because, as Senator Robinson pointed out, she did us all the courtesy of supplying copies to us. I oppose it, with a knowledge of the contents of the Bill, on the more detailed grounds which I advanced against the previous Bill when speaking on the Second Reading on 21st February last. If it were in order to discuss the contents I would advance other grounds for my opposition; but, as the Chair has rightly pointed out, this is not an occasion on which one may discuss the contents. Briefly, on the general, more detailed grounds which I gave before I oppose this Bill.

According to Standing Order No. 73, I now have discretion in regard to the putting of the question. However, I intend to give an opportunity for a limited number of speakers, and in particular for any speaker who wishes to indicate the general attitude of a group. I have no intention of allowing a full scale debate in which every Senator would be allowed to contribute.

I should like to emphasise one point mentioned by Senator Robinson: the right to freely debate measure that affect the public interest. This is fundamental, in my view, to a working democracy and fundamental to the whole parliamentary system.

I propose to vote in favour of the First Stage of this Bill on the basis that this Bill should be printed and published. That is a right open to any Member of the Oireachtas. Any Member who comes before either House of the Oireachtas with a proposal in Bill form has a fundamental right, basic to the whole democratic and parliamentary system, to have that Bill published for public examination and public debate. However, I should like to emphasise also that I am in no way committed to any of the principles in the Bill. I reserve my position in that regard for the Second Stage debate.

I feel members of the public need to be educated in the democratic process. The vote which I propose to cast now is a vote to have this Bill printed and published for open public debate and examination. It has nothing to do with any view which I may express or any vote I may cast on the Second Stage, when the principles of the Bill will be examined and bedated.

I regret that I am forced to my feet to speak at this stage. I deplore the fact that the printing of any Bill should be contested by the House. It was the position of my party, when we were in Opposition, that any Member of either House had a right to have a Bill printed. We hold the same position now that we are in Government. I deeply regret that our friends in Government cannot be ad idem with us on this matter. I also deeply resent being forced into the position of having to come before the House to ask for the elementary right of any legislator: the right to have a legislation printed so that it can be examined not alone in the proper format by the House but also examined by the public at large and by the Press and the media.

I hope that this will be the last occasion on which this issue will arise. While it is legitimate that matters of conscience and principle should obtrude in many debates, it is for my party a fundamental principle of the democratic mechanism that the Bill should be printed. If this House continues to disgrace itself by refusing to give Bills a publication it would be better if it quickly copied the procedures now being adopted by the Dáil. If a measure is to be rejected by this House it is better to do it as a result of a full and free debate.

We know the reasons why people will go through the lobbies, but we want to hear them. We want to know the reasons why people vote one way or another or why they abstain. I am speaking on behalf of all Members of my party who all voted one way on the First Reading of the various measures on this issue, while they exercised their freedom of conscience on the Second Stage. As a group we are adamant that it is fundamental that Bills should be printed. We very much resent being forced into the division lobbies today.

I want to make it clear once again that it would be a mis-use of my discretion to allow a full debate to develop. We have had a statement in favour of the Bill and one in opposition. We have had statements from two Senators on behalf of groups in the House. I would ask any Senator who wishes to speak to only do so if he wishes to say something extremely specific and to do so briefly.

It was reported in the media that I did not vote at the last meeting when this question was under discussion. I was not able to attend the last meeting, having had to attend a funeral of a dear friend. If it were not for that I would certainly have voted against the proposal. I wish to oppose it at every Stage.

There is no public interest in this matter, bringing up opinion polls as a basis for argument is, in my opinion, poppycock. Nine times out of ten they are no indication of the feelings of the people. I agree with the objections put forward by Senator O'Higgins and I should like to make it clearly known that I am opposed to this proposal.

I will be very brief. As somebody who has been talking on this subject for 25 years I do not need to take up the time of the House to say that I support Senator Robinson's valiant attempts to introduce this Bill successfully. It is an extraordinary commentary on the attitude to the democratic idea that she should not be allowed to circulate the Bill so that the public can see it. She sent it to us so it is not just a question of the principle. We know the details. I believe the Bill is a very restrictive one and I do not agree with most of the provisions of it because of their restrictions. I think it should be much wider in its provisions, but I certainly support her attempt to bring it into operation.

I believe the Bill brings in provisions which are already there in so far as the Minister for Health, who is a Member of the Labour Party, has the power to import and distribute the contraceptive devices through the health authorities.

May I intervene to say that the Senator is now making what amounts to a Second Reading speech?

I will not intrude on the time of the House. He has the power to inform people about family planning devices. I would prefer a Bill which went much farther than the proposals here. The powers are already vested in the Minister. He is not using them, despite the fact that he is a Member of a party committed to family planning and contraceptive advice. To the extent that I can facilitate Senator Robinson in any way by obtaining a debate on this subject, I will support the Bill, while deploring the fact that a Member of the Labour Party, the Minister for Health, who has the power to do this, is not doing it.

I support the publication of this Bill because of the procedure in this House under which we have to have a vote on the First Stage. This is a very complex question. Anyone voting for or against the First Stage will be taken as being in favour or against the whole question enshrined in this Bill. It is a subject upon which people have very strong views one way or the other. Consequently the only opportunity I have of giving my views fully on this Bill is to allow it to be published and to express my views on the Second Stage. I reserve my right to decide then what way I will vote, but when I am voting I want an opportunity of expressing my views fully to show why I am voting one way or another. Consequently I support the publication of this Bill.

I should like to express a personal view which I imagine other Members will share, that is, that this Bill should be published, and I would range my support behind the arguments offered by Senator Halligan.

I wish to state that I am opposing this Bill. First of all, I am opposing it because I believe there is no public demand for such legislation. There are far too many serious problems confronting the Irish people at present to be bothered with this Bill. One would think that we were a nation of sex maniacs completely obsessed with sexual problems. That is not the case. I speak as a member of the rural community and I want to say that I have not yet met one single person who advocated the introduction of any form of family planning.

The Chair's discretion is now exhausted. I intend to put the question.

I should just like to say that, as a signatory to the Bill, I have not yet heard a coherent argument why this Bill should not be published and given a First Reading. It is a very dangerous principle to take a Bill which is in the name of three Members of the House, responsible people, and refuse to give it a First Reading, whatever it is. We can have a full discussion on the Second Stage if it is published. I just cannot see why anybody would oppose the First Reading of a Bill signed by three Members of the House.

I want to make it quite clear to the House why I am now putting the question. The continued rising of Senators on this question without adding materially to what was said will, I think, on future occasions force the Chair to follow the standing orders literally and allow speeches only by proposer and opposer. It is not an occasion for a general debate in the House. The question is whether the Bill will be published, and if that motion is agreed to, Senators will have an opportunity to put forward the arguments which have been made already on the First Stage. The question is that the Bill——

I just want to make it clear that I am supporting the First Reading of the Bill.

I propose to put the question. That statement was made on your behalf already.

I do not believe the people of Ireland want this Bill. The onus falls on the Government to introduce a Bill once something is found to be unconstitutional. It does not fall on two or three Senators. The Government did try to introduce a Bill and it was defeated by the votes of their own party. The onus lies on the Government to introduce a Bill to prove this constitutional or otherwise.

The question is: "That leave be given to introduce the Bill."

Question put:
The Seanad divided: Tá, 23; Níl, 16.

  • Barrett, Jack.
  • Blennerhassett, John.
  • Boland, John.
  • Brennan, John J.
  • Browne, Noel C.
  • Deasy, Austin.
  • Dolan, Séamus.
  • Fitzgerald, Alexis.
  • Halligan, Brendan.
  • Hanafin, Des.
  • Horgan, John S.
  • Iveagh, The Earl of
  • Kerrigan, Patrick.
  • Killilea, Mark.
  • Lenihan, Brian.
  • McAuliffe, Timothy.
  • McGlinchey, Bernard.
  • Markey, Bernard.
  • Owens, Evelyn.
  • Robinson, Mary.
  • Ryan, Eoin.
  • Ryan, William.
  • West, Timothy Trevor.

Níl

  • Browne, Patrick (Fad).
  • Burton, Philip.
  • Butler, Pierce.
  • Eachthéirn, Cáit Uí.
  • Garrett, Jack.
  • Keegan, Seán.
  • Kilbride, Thomas.
  • McCartin, John Joseph.
  • Mannion, John M.
  • O'Brien, Andy.
  • O'Brien, William.
  • O'Higgins, Michael J.
  • Russell, George Edward.
  • Sanfey, James W.
  • Walsh, Mary.
  • Whyte, Liam.
Tellers: Tá, Senators Robinson and West; Níl, Senators Sanfey and Butler.
Question declared carried.

I would agree on the first sitting day in February.

Yes. I do not think anyone would object to that, but it should be made clear that we are merely here to fix a time; it is not mandatory on the House to go on with a discussion on that date, and a certain amount obviously will depend on whether or not the Minister is available.

I appreciate that.

Second Stage ordered for first sitting in February.
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