An Irish solution to an Irish problem

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"An Irish solution to an Irish problem" was a term popularised by Charles Haughey during his career as Minister for Health in Ireland and refers to the Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 which was considered a compromise solution.

Today the term "an Irish solution to an Irish problem" is occasionally used in political or social discourse for a solution which is regarded as a notorious compromise – for instance, abortion in Ireland is occasionally described in these terms.

[edit] Background

As Minister for Health, Charles Haughey sought to regularise and legislate for the outcome of the McGee v. The Attorney General^[1] court case of 1973. This case, which had reached the Supreme Court, found that there was a constitutional right to marital privacy which also allowed for the use of contraceptives. Initially the government was slow to respond to the Supreme Court ruling, and a number of proposed bills failed to make it to the statute book. Indeed Taoiseach Jack Lynch admitted at one point that the issue had been put "on the long finger". Owning and using contraceptive devices and pills was always legal, but they could not be sold legally.^[2] During this time a loophole was used, where a device such as a condom could not be "offered for sale", but a buyer could be "invited to treat" to buy it. Also people made donations to family planning associations to obtain contraception as a gift.

In 1978 the Health (Family Planning) Bill was introduced by Charles Haughey. This bill limited the provision of contraceptives to bona fide "family planning or for adequate medical reasons".^[3] However the most controversial part of the bill was that contraceptives could only be dispensed by a pharmacist on the presentation of a valid medical prescription; it is often wrongly stated that the recipient of the prescription had to be married, but the legislation required no such terms. The reason for this compromise was the strong position of conservative elements in Irish society at the time, particularly the Roman Catholic Church which made it difficult for the government to provide for a more liberal law. Contraception was also not seen by politicians as a vote-getter at the time.

On November 1, 1980 the Act came into operation by order^[4] of the Minister.

[edit] Aftermath

The Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1985 liberalised the law by allowing condoms and spermicides to be sold to people over 18 without having to present a prescription; however sale was limited to categories of places named in the act. The Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1992 repealed the controversial Section 4 of 1979 as amended in 1985, and continued the provision of contraceptives without prescription. Currently the 1992 Act and the Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, 1993 are the main Irish legislation on contraceptive and family planning services.