We can talk about statistics, but the reality is that there have been 55 retirements and 31 resignations from An Garda Síochána in the past two months alone. We know that 1,640 gardaí will be eligible to retire over the next five years. The Minister spoke about some more recent work, but we know that prior to the commencement of exit interviews within An Garda Síochána, the GRA carried out its own research in 2023 with existing members. It found that members felt burnt out and stressed, were weighed down by adminis…

In response to the last Deputy, I know she is very passionate about these issues but it is important this House reminds itself that Irish and EU farmers adhere to the highest and strictest animal welfare and environmental water quality standards of any farmers anywhere in the world. That is not to say that in all of those areas we do not need to go further but we must recognise that when we talk about our farming community, we are talking about working class low-paid workers. In fact, there is nobody who gets paid …

Decades of failures by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments to plan for the expansion of key water, wastewater and electricity infrastructure is part of the reason the same Governments have failed to get to grips with the housing crisis. I asked the then Minister for housing, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about these issues in 2023. Typical to form, he denied there was a problem at all. He replied to me saying there was enough water supply and wastewater treatment at Uisce Éireann plants to support the need for housing …

As the Minister said, the motion seeks to extend the provision for the consumption of alcohol in relevant outdoor seating as provided for in the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act for another six months until the end of November. The Act introduced changes in the law to allow for the sale and consumption of alcohol in relevant outdoor seating areas where those outdoor seating areas had been permitted by the local authorities on public land or were on private land next to the licensed premises. While Sinn Féin…

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. It is always good to see a Monaghan man in charge. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Farrelly report. So many of us from all parties in the Oireachtas are just appalled by what happened to Grace but also by the failure to deliver the justice and truth she deserves through the report of the Farrelly commission. This is a very lengthy and costly report. It is 2,000 pages long, took eight years to complete and cost €14 million but it fails to deliver answers in relation to …

I thank the Minister for the update. The opt-in before us facilitates the mutual recognition of changing insolvency practices in different European Union member states. As Ireland and other EU member states update, adjust or develop different civil mechanisms, it is generally right that we should continue to facilitate mutual recognition. Sinn Féin will be supporting this opt-in as we believe that, where such mutual recognition exists today, ordinary people and businesses should continue to avail of its benefits. H…

Did I nearly get a break there?

I have just got indigestion. I am blaming the Minister.

The Ceann Comhairle is far too efficient for my liking. I will propose the deletion of the entire section. Section 4 relates to the role of the jury in High Court defamation actions. It would be important if the Minister could give us clarity on whether he is planning to proceed with this section in its entirety. I put on the record very strongly that Sinn Féin is opposed to the removal of juries from High Court defamation cases as a matter of principle and we will not be able to support the Bill if this remains th…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I ask his indulgence because we were rushing at the start and skipped over sections. I want not to oppose section 3 but to ask the Minister for clarification on a point. One of the other recommendations in the report of the pre-legislative scrutiny from the justice committee of the previous Dáil was that the definition of "periodical" should be made clearer, specifically regarding whether publications from broadcasters - say, the RTÉ website - would come under the remit of the Pre…

Yes, the definition of a "periodical". It is a small point but I omitted to talk about it when we were skipping through section 3 and I want to put it on the record in case we table an amendment at a later stage. I do not know if the Minister intended them this way but I interpreted his words to mean he did not agree with this but was bound by collective government, the programme for Government and decisions previously made to pursue it. That is astonishing. Of course, a Minister can bring a recommendation to Gover…

I will make a brief point in response to one of the assertions of the Minister where he quite rightly says this House should not be bound to the views of any given set of experts, whether it be the Bar Council, the Law Library, former members of the Judiciary even or the pre-legislative scrutiny of a committee of these Houses. It is ultimately, of course, for the Dáil to make a determination in respect of laws, but there has to be logic to it. The question I was asking the Minister was that all of these bodies are …

The fundamental concerns with section 5 are the same as those we had with section 4. I want to record my deep disappointment that the Minister could not be moved. When Committee Stage concludes and we proceed to Report Stage, the big question will be whether we have a Bill that has cross-party support and the full endorsement of the Oireachtas or a Bill that is contentious and divisive. Sinn Féin will be opposing this section.

Section 6 refers to the "harm to the reputation of the body corporate" in the context of a not-for-profit organisation. This section proposes limiting this to instances whereby publication "has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm to the reputation of the body corporate." As I indicated earlier, there is a high standard and barrier in terms of defamation of an individual. This presents it at a much higher level for a body corporate. I refer to not-for-profit corporate bodies. The Minister will be aware that …

Again, there are potential concerns here that are perhaps not envisaged in the Bill. We need to be incredibly careful. In terms of corporate profit-making entities, on the face of it, one would think that if a company has been defamed, one would automatically see an impact on profit margins or turnover. I am sure it would not take too much imagination to consider where there could be anomalies in that. Sometimes when talking about corporate entities, we think about big corporations but a corporate entity could be a…

One of the objectives of defamation law - it might not be stated in law - is that, at a time when there is so much mistrust about misinformation and disinformation, it should be a case that anybody who is publishing anything, particularly a professional media outlet, should not want to tell lies. The difficulty with this definition is that, for a for-profit entity, you can publish lies about it as long as it does not actually have a financial loss. There might be reasons for publishing lies or making defamatory rem…

The section relates to it being a defence to defamation to give a fair report of proceedings or judgments of courts in this State or in the North of our country. It extends this protection to the courts of any state, essentially. There is a certain practicality to this, particularly in the context of media essentially having become internationalised. I would appreciate it, however, if the Minister could speak to whether he believes that extending this to any state is practical or perhaps even fair and whether he ha…

May I speak-----

-----and perhaps Deputy Gannon will-----

-----be here later? SLAPP suits, which is I think what this section deals with, are of course an abhorrent attempt to place fear of financial ruin particularly on ordinary people or to scare off media outlets that might have a limited budget from taking part in either public life or public discourse. They have no place in a democracy. There cannot be selective prohibition of freedom of expression simply because there is a fear of a malign actor using defamation proceedings for that purpose where defamation has not …