It recommended removing the requirement to demonstrate that a publication was fair and reasonable in all of the circumstances and the adoption of an approach similar to that in section 4 of the Act in England and Wales, which requires a defendant to provide that the statement was or formed part of a statement in the public interest and that the defendant reasonably believed that publishing the statement was in the public interest. Head 16 of the general scheme of this Bill proposed an amended defence which required a defendant to prove: that the statement was in the public interest; that the defendant reasonably believed publishing the statement to be in the public interest; and that the defendant complied with the standards of responsible journalism when verifying and publishing the statement.
Key terms by TF-IDF across 9,592 words from 8 speakers. The summary quotes the highest-scoring sentences verbatim — nothing is paraphrased.
Tellers: Tá, Senators Garret Ahearn and Paul Daly; Níl, Senators Michael McDowell and Gerard P. Craughwell.
| Question | Result | Tá–Níl |
|---|---|---|
| Amendment put: | Carried | 23–11 |
Party shown is the one each member held on 2025-10-22, frozen by a dated join — not their party today. The Oireachtas API publishes no date of birth and returns an empty gender field for every member in this period, so no age or gender breakdown is shown.