Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: From the Seanad
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-11
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

-----mean that some guidance has being given in that area. In any event, I just do not see how replacing juries in the context of making these decisions, even when it comes to the awards people might get if their good name and reputation have been taken, with a single individual, namely a judge, can be a good thing. The only plausible explanation - it would be interesting to know if this is the case - is that those who own the big media outlets want what is being proposed.
Let us be honest, sensational comments about people that may veer into the area of being defamatory or slanderous sell newspapers. They can go further when it comes to the algorithms used by certain social media outlets for that matter. It is not that I want to infringe on free speech – I genuinely do not – but somebody does have to judge whether a line has been crossed and whether something is completely wrong, unfair, baseless, slanderous, defamatory and has taken away someone’s good name and character. Given the choice between an individual judge and a representative body of one's peers, I know which I think is fairer. This is elementary in the justice system. That is true about other things as well, including serious criminal matters. Is it just that the Government is dancing to the tune of the owners of the media outlets and flying in the face of what should really be an elementary legal principle of the justice system? It seems that is what the Minister is doing. I want to flag that I believe this is fundamentally wrong and that we will be voting against it. I am curious to hear why the Minister’s volte face happened and how the Government is going to justify it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-11