Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I will make a couple of points. On the retail defamation, as it is called, and section 8, as I have indicated before, it is incredibly important that we have this defence. It is equally important that this defence is not abused. There is clearly a communication issue. I met a retailer in the House today, a member of a representative organisation, who expressed real concerns that this section will not actually do what the Oireachtas wants it to do. Prior to Committee Stage in the Seanad, perhaps the Minister would be willing to engage with representative organisations to clarify this or to get a sense of whether there is a need for further clarity within the section.

I did not move any amendments with regard to the so-called corporate provisions and the test that is to be incorporated. I think this will be the first section of the legislation that could very well result in a return of the Dáil to amend this legislation further. As I mentioned on Committee Stage, there is real potential to have what might be described as corporate entities - they could be charitable organisations, as I said in the debate, or they could be political parties - that could suffer from malicious articles or publications and while they might not meet that test, the damage could be very real. I reiterate that I have a concern in that respect. Nevertheless, we will not oppose any of the amendments in this section.

See this speech in context