Mr. Eamonn Kennedy:

Just to give a bit of background, in here the Deputy has absolute privilege but outside it is strict liability for people who open their mouth. The standard text on defamation is about 1,000 pages long and is very dense. I sweated blood and tears over that document, which summarises as best as possible how the strict liability system works. Even if one does not get through it all, if one gets through the first 22 pages, one will see in practical terms how the system operates. I can understand the Deputy's point that the Government might seek to push RTE. However, it is highly unlikely that the Government or Ministers would try to use defamation law. That is a rarity.

I assume the Deputy is talking about a situation where Government Ministers and Departments try to force RTE to take a certain line. That is an entirely different kettle of fish to the system that works down in the courts.

The first point the Deputy made was that RTE rolled over, but I am afraid I cannot agree with that. I would not agree with it for the following reasons. There is a range of cases that RTE has to deal with, as do most publishers. They invariably give rise to a range of issues that all publishers are familiar with. In some instances one can work with what the law provides to try to defend them, whether that is to hold the line or run them and win in court. However, there are often circumstances where to continue to defend something in terms of the system that operates down at the Four Courts is foolhardy. That is the situation that RTE finds itself in, as do a lot of the other publishers.