If I remember right the Irish government said they had no choice because the anti-blasphemy bit was written into their constitution. After several legal cases were brought that sort of fell into the “grey zone” because of the lack of a modern statute they needed to write one. There already was a anti-blasphemy law sorta but it was from the 1500’s or something like that.

Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that according to the law makers they were only trying to make things better, not worse.