I listened very carefully to the Minister's reply. When I asked why do this, he said it is because we can do it. That is a remarkable proposition. I asked the question as to why should we do it and he said because we can. It is a very strange argument in favour of changing the law. Of course we can change the law. We can do many things, subject to the views of the Members of the House. However, to say to me when I ask why something should happen is that it is because we can do it is avoiding the issue of whether we…

I move amendment No. 4: In page 7, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following: “6. Nothing in this Part prohibits the trial in the High Court with a jury of a claim in defamation in conjunction with any related claim arising substantially out of the same alleged facts and circumstances which would otherwise be triable by the High Court with a jury.”. This amendment proposes to insert in Part 3, which effectively abolishes jury trial in the High Court, a new provision. What I am dealing with here is a situatio…

I want to be associated with the kind remarks the Cathaoirleach and others have made about Julie Lyons on the occasion of her impending retirement, which we are marking. She is a wonderful woman and very kind to all of us. I definitely agree with what was said by Senator Boyle, that hospitality is slightly different to catering and that she managed to crown one with the other. At the end of the last session of the House we were speaking about the refugee crisis, asylum-seeking and the like. There is an Oireachtas j…

I want to raise on the Order of Business today the need for a full debate in this House on facts and circumstances, some of which have only partly emerged in the media, concerning grave issues relating to the armoury section of An Garda Síochána, which have been dealt with by An Garda Síochána and the Department of justice. There has been limited media coverage of the falsification of documents submitted by An Garda Síochána to the Department of justice, designed to facilitate the importation of firearms for civili…

Hear, hear.

I would prefer them to be discussed separately.

I support the substance of Senator Ryan's amendment for a number of reasons and I echo all the arguments she made without exception. First, the newspapers of Ireland have convinced themselves that their problem with defamation law lies with juries. They have convinced themselves of that narrative and nothing will dislodge them from that conviction. They have convinced themselves that trial by jury leads to unpredictable results, excessive awards and the like. However, there are many alternatives to, for instance, t…

I echo what Senator Stephenson has said about ignoring other voices in society. If the Irish Council for Civil Liberties thinks jury trials should not be abolished, if the Law Reform Commission thinks they should not be abolished and if the justice committee of this House and Dáil Éireann thinks they should not be abolished, who actually is demanding that they should be abolished? If we are holding the scales of justice and if the justice joint committee and these impartial, pro-citizen bodies, especially the Law R…

I agree with Senator Stephenson's remarks. The funny thing is that if a person brought a case in the Circuit Court for defamation, the judge could disbelieve them. The judge in the Circuit Court may or may not give a long judgment one way or the other on the matter. The judge can come to a view, one way or another, without a jury. However, if a person does not think they got a fair hearing in the Circuit Court, they can appeal to the High Court and get another judge to look at exactly the same claim they had brough…

I second the proposal.

I second the amendment proposed by Senator Clonan to the Order of Business. Somebody listening to the Order of Business today would be struck by the consistent expressions of horror across the House at what is happening in Gaza. The terms on which we decry it, deplore it and condemn it are very important. The accusation being made against Ireland by senior politicians in the United States, egged on by senior politicians in the Israeli Government, that Irish people who support the ending of genocide in Gaza, who sup…

I second the motion.

Normally, I would not comment on a section of this kind but I want to draw the attention of the House to what we are doing. We are proposing to amend the Planning and Development Act 2024. I have a copy of it here. The Act will be twice as long when it is translated into Irish. We are waiting for that process to take place. I want to put on the record of the House that the Bill was guillotined with the great majority of amendments not even reached or considered. The Bill came from the Dáil to this House in such an …

I share Senator Keogan's reservations about the Office of the Planning Regulator. I understand what the Minister has said on it emerging from one of the recommendations of the Mahon tribunal but, with the greatest of respect, the fact the tribunal had to deal with allegations of corruption in respect of zoning and rezoning by local authority members never required something as draconian as the Office of the Planning Regulator to be established. It certainly did not require the Department giving to the Office of the…

I support it.

In June 2022, the Irish Independent reported the then director of Savills Ireland as saying local authorities around the greater Dublin area, that is the four local authorities in Dublin county, and those in Kildare, Wicklow and Meath, had in response to the national planning framework changed their previous county development plans to reduce zoned lands by enough land to build 100,000 houses That is how the national planning framework actually works. In the greater Dublin area the affect of the NPF four years ago …

Just at close of business.

I welcome the Minister and thank him for his attendance. There are many features of this Bill with which I am in complete agreement and there are others on which I am mainly in agreement, subject to some criticisms I might have to make. One of the principal functions of this legislation, as introduced by the then Minister, Deputy McEntee, was the abolition of juries in the High Court. That is a matter that is strongly supported by the media on the basis that defamation trials in the High Court are apparently very c…

Very fashionable.

I want to raise with the Leader of the House the possibility of having, before the House rises for the summer vacation, the opportunity to collectively consider a resolution on the situation in Gaza. Today, it is reported that Israel Katz, the defence minister for Israel, has announced a plan that the IDF is working on to remove all of the 2 million people from Gaza to a compound which it proposes to create in the ruins of Rafah. It will call it a humanitarian city, from which nobody will be allowed to exit except …