at one point that the issue had been put "on the long finger". The Health (Family Planning) Act 1979 limited the provision of contraceptives to ", family planning or for adequate medical reasons". Under this scheme, contraceptives could only be dispensed by a pharmacist on the presentation of a valid medical prescription from a practising doctor. The legislation did not require that the recipient of the prescription be married; however "bona fide family planning" would have made non-marital use unlikely to be authorised. The legislation had been introduced by Charles Haughey. The reason for the 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. Haughey described the 1979 Act as "an Irish solution to an Irish problem". Eileen Desmond, TD, was severely critical of the legislation; describing it as hypocritical, she argued that women should make their own decisions on such matters, and contended that the Irish people and "those who have conditioned our consciences' showed greater moral concern on sexual matters than in addressing poverty". On 1 November 1980 the Act came into operation by order of the minister. 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 The Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act 1992 repealed Section 4 of the 1979 Act, as amended in 1985, and continued the provision of contraceptives without prescription, allowing sale to individuals over the age of 17. As of 2010, the 1992 Act and the Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act 1993 are the main Irish legislation on contraceptive and family planning services. As well as allowing sales, Ireland's censorship laws had to be reformed to allow contraceptives to be advertised or even mentioned. As late as 1976, the Censorship of Publications Board had banned the Irish Family Planning Association's booklet "Family Planning". The Health (Family Planning) Act 1979 deleted references to "the unnatural prevention of conception" in the 1929 and 1949 censorship Acts, thus allowing publications with information about contraception to be distributed in Ireland. The Regulation of Information (Services Outside the State for the