In my previous post, I noted that the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 has been restored to the Dáil Order Paper, and will therefore continue its journey through the Oireachtas.

Anois teacht an Earraigh, beidh an lá dul chun síneadh, and the Government will publish a Spring Legislation Programme. It has duly done so, and it lists the Bill among the Bills restored to the Dáil and Seanad Order Papers, to recommence at Committee Stage.

However, no Oireachtas committees have yet been established, because the row over Dáil speaking rights has not yet been resolved. The earliest this is likely to be achieved is at a meeting of the Dáil Reform Committee next Wednesday, but unless the Government amends its proposals, that meeting is unlikely to settle the matter. Meanwhile, the long delayed Defamation Bill has taken another step back.

As I noted in the post before that on Defamation in the Programme for Government, the Minister for Justice having carriage of the Bill is Jim O’Callaghan. As a backbencher speaking on the Second Stage of the Bill in the Dáil (noted on this blog here), he characterised the decision to abolish juries in the High Court as “short-sighted”, raising question as to whether he would amend the Bill.…

Read More »

Following the recent general election, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two main parties likely to lead the next government, have published an agreed draft Programme for Government (here, and here (pdf); update: final version here). It pledges to “tackle the practice of ‘retail defamation'” (p122), and to

Restore the Defamation Bill 2024 to the order paper and make passing the legislation a priority. (p122)

This is welcome, but hardly surprising. Each of these parties had made similar promises in their general election manifestos. Fianna Fáil (pdf) promised to

• Address shoplifting, by providing retailers with a statutory defence in cases where shoppers claim they have been defamed when asked whether they have paid for a product and/or for proof of purchase [p18]; and
• Restore the Defamation Bill to the Order paper at its current advanced stage, maintain its
  current approach and implement it within three months [p116].

And Fine Gael (pdf) promised to

• Enact the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024:
  This legislation will reform and modernise defamation laws, including a new statutory defence for ‘retail defamation’ cases to address the rise in claims made against retail businesses [p64].
• Enact the Defamation Bill within 100 days:
  Pass the Defamation Bill to balance freedom of expression with protections for individuals’
  good name and reputation.

Read More »