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 amendment simply provides that where a condition has been attached to the making of an identification order, the court will retain the right to vary any condition thereafter. What I am saying is, supposing the Circuit Court says that the identification order will be used solely for the purpose of a defamation case and not for any other purpose. There may well be circumstances in which there are very good reasons somebody who is in possession of an identification order may want to use that information in a collateral way. What I am saying here is, that where that is just that they should be able to use it for a different purpose. Then, in those circumstances, the court should have jurisdiction to relax the conditions which were applied to the making of the identification order at the time it was made.
I cannot see any problem with that 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