Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2025-07-09 ============================================================ Sharon Keogan (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel I thank the Acting Chairperson for pointing that out. Before becoming Attorney General. Mr. Fanning was one of the country's most sought-after barristers in commercial and defamation law. While it is of course normal for legislators to follow careers in law before entering politics, we must question the systemic problems that raises. Do we really believe that this Bill, one that preserves high-value litigation by weakening public protections, was crafted with cool, disinterested objectivity by those who have profited most from the current system? Finally, I want to speak on a broader concern. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-07-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:02+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-07-09