Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland

The Minister correctly concedes that what he says here is not in any sense looked to by the courts as to what the section actually means but in my view it is not an overly strict interpretation of the word that the statement consists of an inquiry to say that it must be interrogative in nature. We will only find out whether the Minister is right that it is the case that judges will say they will expand the meaning of the term to cover statements and inquiries when a case is actually decided in the Circuit Court one afternoon in Galway. On the ordinary canons of construction, the ordinary and natural meaning of words fall to be interpreted as the intention of the Oireachtas, not what I say here and not what the Minister says here in debating this particular amendment. I believe that it would be a more reasonable proposition to say that the statement must consist of a statement or an inquiry, because an inquiry is not a statement. If you say, "Did you pay for this?", that is not a statement. If I say, "Did you pay for something?", it is not a statement.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21