Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. Sinn Féin will support the motion. The issue the motion relates to and the directive itself are enormously important in having an EU-wide set of minimum standards for protecting individuals, journalists, human rights advocates and, more particularly, residents' associations, and environmental and non-governmental organisations, which is vital.

Given the limitation or weakness of the EU directive, namely, that it applies primarily to transboundary or cross-border strategic litigations, I would be more impressed if the Government was to bring forward domestic legislation to tackle the issue of strategic litigations against public participation, which is a growing problem in this country. While the Commission, in its explanatory memorandum to the proposal to the directive, focuses on journalists and human rights defenders, in this State today the central problem is in fact large developers instigating very expensive strategic litigations against public participation against groups with very limited resources to try to, in essence, destroy the good work such groups are trying to do in the courts. I will evidence some of that. While we support the motion, I urge the Minister of State to take back to his colleagues the need for domestic legislation to deal with domestic strategic litigation because that is where the problem is. I am sure I will not be the only Deputy who will raise that.

I will give a couple of examples by way of cases that have already been widely reported in the media. It is important to put them on the Dáil record. In Dublin city centre, a large apartment development, Ivy Exchange, was built during the Celtic tiger with very significant fire safety and structural defects. The apartment owners' management company is trying to avail of the only redress it currently has, which is taking the developer, Cosgrave's, through the courts to remediate the building that would cost the homeowners tens of thousands of euro otherwise. Cosgrave's has initiated a strategic litigation-----

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