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

It is shocking. This is the legislation they have been pleading for.
I will say one thing to the representatives of the newspapers who are in the Public Gallery. They at least should be strong on defending citizens' rights in the context of the anonymous publication of details on the Internet. They carry a different burden, as the Minister conceded. They cannot publish a defamatory letter or repeat a defamatory statement without there being editorial and legal consequences. We are trying to do something to reverse the gross injustice done day in, day out to decent people on the Internet because the Internet companies accord anonymity to keyboard cowards who know they can get away with it. If the Minster says this is one of the most important provisions in the Bill, that is fine. He should make it really work. This will not work because, as I said, an identification order made by Circuit Court in the hands of a plaintiff in the High Court cannot even be handed up to the judge to say it was Joe Bloggs who did something. The Minister stated that, as a matter of principle, that should remain the law. I cannot believe that, but it is what we are hearing.

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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