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

All I am saying is that it should be admissible, subject to contradiction or denial. It should at least be enough that the plaintiff in the defamation proceedings says they got an identification order naming Joe Bloggs as the poster. That should be enough for the court to be going on with, unless Joe Bloggs is named as the defendant. If Joe Bloggs is then in the situation that he wants to come in and contradict it, under our amendment, he is fully free to do so under our amendment. At least he cannot have a smart-ass barrister stand up and say the Minister refused point-blank to make this admissible in the Act, and that is it. I believe, therefore, that this is a reasonable 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