Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank Senator McDowell for the amendment and his contribution. We had an extensive discussion about this on Committee Stage.
In terms of costs following the event, what the means is that generally the winner of a court dispute is granted their costs on a party and party basis. However, that is a difficult rule to apply in circumstances where there is an application which is not an inter partes application. In fact, it is a non-party application. I used the example previously of where there could be two parties in a dispute - an individual against another individual. Then, for the purpose of resolving that dispute, there is a requirement to get a discovery from, say, another third entity who is not involved in the dispute at all, and that third entity is sometimes required to make a disclosure of documents for the purpose of facilitating this dispute. It is never the case that that third non-party is required to pay the costs. It is always the case that the non-party will have their costs paid.
I think Senator McDowell's concerns are met by the fact that we all know that costs are always going to be at the discretion of the court, no matter what the statutory provision, and the statutory provision that is contained here, and which he seeks to amend, simply says that the court may "order that an applicant pay any or all of the costs of the relevant intermediary service provider". So it is not a mandatory requirement. It is a discretionary order.
Senator McDowell refers to a well known Internet service provider - a social media company. Again, when I am dealing with creating new law and putting forward new law for the Oireachtas to make, I have to look at it objectively and not try to identify any entity. If a non-party is playing a role in inter partes litigation, in general, at some stage in the proceedings, that non-party is recompensed for facilitating the resolution of the dispute by providing information or documents so I cannot accept the amendment.

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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