Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-11-12
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I will be brief. This is a provision that I am introducing, which I hope the Oireachtas will support it, for the purpose of facilitating the freedom of expression side of the balancing act. Section 27A will be a worthwhile amendment once it is put into the Defamation Act. It will facilitate live broadcasts. We have to be careful as politicians stating whether we think live broadcasts are a good idea. We should not be getting into that territory. That is a matter for broadcasters to determine. However, it can be the case that broadcasters can be and are held liable for utterances made by other persons, whether in the audience or on a panel, in circumstances where there was really nothing the broadcaster could do to stop it from happening. On fairly basic principles of justice, it is unfair that somebody is to be held liable in respect of an utterance over which they had no control.
As Senator McDowell is aware, there are a number of tests that have to be complied with by the broadcaster in order to avail of this defence. For instance, if the broadcaster knew there was a person who was regularly coming onto programmes or publishing utterances that were defamatory about an individual and knowingly put him into the audience or onto the panel, the broadcaster would then not get the protection of this defence.
In terms of audience participation, it is beneficial from the point of view of public participation. It helps our democracy where we can have a broadcast that involves audience members. Most people, in general, are compliant and do not exceed the boundaries of what is permissible in respect of what can be said. It is a good provision. It will encourage broadcasters to have live broadcasts. We do not want to lose live broadcasts. It will also ensure that if broadcasters do not do the basic work in terms of ensuring they have control over who is coming on or they were aware of an individual had a tendency to utter things that are false about a person, in that instance they would be held liable.
It is the case that the person who utters the defamatory statement will still be held liable. Senator McDowell said that most of these individuals may be straw people that you cannot get damages from. People can get other remedies under the Defamation Act. They could get a correction order, an order of declaration for the purpose of correcting what was said.
Those are available and there are other measures that do not depend upon the financial status of the person in the audience who has made the utterance. It is a worthwhile new statutory defence. I will consider the issue that was raised in the amendment but I encourage colleagues to support the section.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:18+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-12