Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland

The Minister comes into the Seanad and says that, on principle, he cannot accept any amendments tendered to any part of the Bill so far. I am beginning to suspect that his plan is to pass it without even having to bring it back to Dáil Éireann. I am beginning to suspect that is the strategy. If the Minister were to tell me he even had his own Report Stage amendments to deal with something I may never even have raised, I would be interested to hear that. I feel we are dealing with the batsman blocking here.
It is simply a case of holding the bat, saying "No" and hoping the game will be over fairly soon. That is no way to treat this House or this Parliament. If one part of the Parliament says it is not interested in discussing these changes, so be it. That is its responsibility. If those involved have other, more important things to do like denaming or renaming parks in Rathgar, God bless them all. This will affect the constitutional rights of ordinary citizens. I cannot for the life of me see why the improvements we are suggesting should all be batted away at the other end of the crease as if they are of no consequence whatsoever. The only coverage this debate has had so far was in an article in The Irish Times suggesting that there is a filibuster in progress. That is pretty shocking.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11