Results 461-480 of 11,287 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: The Bill.

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: Committee Stage is not agreed. Is that in order?

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: I just wanted to let the Minister know the strength of my feelings.

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: May I speak about the amendment?

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: I fully support this amendment. It is restrictive in terms of allowing people to go through the Circuit Court to seek the identity of those behind online anonymous publications or posts. Social media in particular is one of the great advances of our time. The right to anonymity on social media can in many ways be positive and allows people to express themselves and engage in public...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: The section relates to it being a defence to defamation to give a fair report of proceedings or judgments of courts in this State or in the North of our country. It extends this protection to the courts of any state, essentially. There is a certain practicality to this, particularly in the context of media essentially having become internationalised. I would appreciate it, however, if the...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: May I speak-----

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: -----and perhaps Deputy Gannon will-----

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: -----be here later? SLAPP suits, which is I think what this section deals with, are of course an abhorrent attempt to place fear of financial ruin particularly on ordinary people or to scare off media outlets that might have a limited budget from taking part in either public life or public discourse. They have no place in a democracy. There cannot be selective prohibition of freedom of...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: One of the objectives of defamation law - it might not be stated in law - is that, at a time when there is so much mistrust about misinformation and disinformation, it should be a case that anybody who is publishing anything, particularly a professional media outlet, should not want to tell lies. The difficulty with this definition is that, for a for-profit entity, you can publish lies about...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: The fundamental concerns with section 5 are the same as those we had with section 4. I want to record my deep disappointment that the Minister could not be moved. When Committee Stage concludes and we proceed to Report Stage, the big question will be whether we have a Bill that has cross-party support and the full endorsement of the Oireachtas or a Bill that is contentious and divisive....

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: Section 6 refers to the "harm to the reputation of the body corporate" in the context of a not-for-profit organisation. This section proposes limiting this to instances whereby publication "has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm to the reputation of the body corporate." As I indicated earlier, there is a high standard and barrier in terms of defamation of an individual. This...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: Again, there are potential concerns here that are perhaps not envisaged in the Bill. We need to be incredibly careful. In terms of corporate profit-making entities, on the face of it, one would think that if a company has been defamed, one would automatically see an impact on profit margins or turnover. I am sure it would not take too much imagination to consider where there could be...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: I will make a brief point in response to one of the assertions of the Minister where he quite rightly says this House should not be bound to the views of any given set of experts, whether it be the Bar Council, the Law Library, former members of the Judiciary even or the pre-legislative scrutiny of a committee of these Houses. It is ultimately, of course, for the Dáil to make a...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I ask his indulgence because we were rushing at the start and skipped over sections. I want not to oppose section 3 but to ask the Minister for clarification on a point. One of the other recommendations in the report of the pre-legislative scrutiny from the justice committee of the previous Dáil was that the definition of "periodical" should be made...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: Yes, the definition of a "periodical". It is a small point but I omitted to talk about it when we were skipping through section 3 and I want to put it on the record in case we table an amendment at a later stage. I do not know if the Minister intended them this way but I interpreted his words to mean he did not agree with this but was bound by collective government, the programme for...

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: Did I nearly get a break there?

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: I have just got indigestion. I am blaming the Minister.

Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: The Ceann Comhairle is far too efficient for my liking. I will propose the deletion of the entire section. Section 4 relates to the role of the jury in High Court defamation actions. It would be important if the Minister could give us clarity on whether he is planning to proceed with this section in its entirety. I put on the record very strongly that Sinn Féin is opposed to the...

EU Regulations: Motion (30 Apr 2025)

Matt Carthy: I thank the Minister for the update. The opt-in before us facilitates the mutual recognition of changing insolvency practices in different European Union member states. As Ireland and other EU member states update, adjust or develop different civil mechanisms, it is generally right that we should continue to facilitate mutual recognition. Sinn Féin will be supporting this opt-in as we...