Mr. Mark Harty:

The Cathaoirleach will not be surprised if I were to say "Yes" in respect of the first question. There is, I believe, on average, 14 weeks in a legal year which are given over to juries.

That is an approximation but I think it is correct. It will not surprise the Cathaoirleach, in light of what I hope is a certain enthusiasm I have displayed to the committee, that I believe most of these problems can be solved by more juries rather than fewer juries. Therefore, if there were longer terms, the problems with delays should be significantly solved.

On the suggestion of the jury liability judge quantum approach duality, it is quite valuable that a jury would mark the seriousness of the defamation and not simply the question, but that does not necessarily mean it cannot simply be answered by the question of whether the defamation is serious or very serious. My suggestion that the jury could give an indicative verdict as to damages and the judge could then recalcitrate that in line with judicial authority also does the same thing. There are a variety of different ways that particular circle could be squared.

On the question of long overdue defamation reform, the one thing I will say is the loudest voice often seems the most correct and in our world the people who most often want the media laws to be redefined are the media organisations. They are the people most likely to say they need an overhaul on every occasion. That is perhaps why it is deemed so necessary. I also agree it is a fast-moving area and there are not any simple answers, though those issues tend not to affect the organisations loudly arguing our defamation laws must be reformed. In that regard, I will come back to the report of Reporters Without Borders wherein we are deemed to have effectively the freest press in the world right now. Certain organisations and jurisdictions will see our media laws as being very different from theirs, especially the US. A very different attitude is taken there. Fortunately, things like the National Enquirerare not commonplace in this jurisdiction and could not exist here because of our defamation laws. Some might well see our laws as requiring reform when a proper assessment might indicate such reforms are not ideal. That might assist.