Results 10,081-10,100 of 16,849 for speaker:Dermot Ahern

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: The review is to happen "not later than" five years, so it could take place after five months. This is an area of law that evolves on a daily basis. One of the reasons for the delay in passing this legislation since its publication is that things have changed not just on this island but also across the water. Many judgments handed down in the UK have implications for our law. I hazard a...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: These are drafting amendments, based on advice from the Office of the Attorney General and the Parliamentary Counsel. They propose to delete sections 7(1)(b) and 7(2)(b), which refer to the provision of further information by plaintiffs or defendants under sworn affidavits. I am advised that retention of the provisions would require the addition of a detailed definition as to what...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: Amendments Nos. 12 and 15 are drafting amendments to correct the required reference to section 1 in sections 15 and 16. Amendments Nos. 13 and 14 are linked: amendment No. 13 provides absolute privilege for statements made in the course of proceedings during an arbitral tribunal where the statement is connected with those proceedings, while amendment No. 14 is a technical amendment...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: I thank Senators for their remarks. All those in public life, not only politicians, will have some difficulty with a defence of fair and reasonable publication. If any Bill was to feature on my Christmas card list, the Bill before us is not it. Before my appointment to this Department I looked long and hard at section 24, now section 26, on the defence of fair and reasonable publication....

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: Amendments Nos. 23 to 26 support amendments tabled by the Labour Party on Committee Stage regarding the jurisdiction of courts in dealing with applications for declaratory orders under section 26. The Labour Party had proposed to widen the jurisdiction to both District and Circuit Courts in addition to the High Court. Fine Gael supported this proposal. Of course, the District Court has no...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: No.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: Amendment No. 28 refines the text of amendment No. 34 to use the more correct term "defamatory libel", rather than the previous "criminal libel", which is more of a catch-all phrase for various types of libel. This change has been advised by the Offices of the Attorney General and the Parliamentary Counsel. Amendment No. 29 provides for a new section to modernise the current law in section...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: Does the Senator mean even in the paper of record? Senators may recall that this House agreed the deletion from the Bill of a provision regarding the publication of gravely harmful statements, which were in the Bill as originally published. The decision of the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to delete that provision was widely acclaimed. He did, however, indicate clearly...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: However, for a number of reasons, it would not be my intention to bring forward proposals for a referendum at this time. Thus, in order to complete the long awaited reform of defamation we must now - we have an obligation under the Constitution-----

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: -----address this matter. My immediate predecessor as Minister indicated here in the Seanad on two occasions that we must address the appropriate legislative provision of blasphemous libel in regard to offences contained in the relevant article of the Constitution. It is stated in plain English and one could not get any plainer than this. Article 40.6.1o states: The publication or...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: It is because of the Corway case. It is being incorrectly alleged that neither of my predecessors felt there was a need for this. A member of the Labour Party was on a programme and said something that was a complete untruth, and he knew it. The Minister, Deputy Lenihan, said on 11 March 2008: If we repeal, in full, the provisions of the 1961 Act in reforming the defamation laws, we create...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: I do not know what the Senators are talking about.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: I understand. I do not know whether Senator Norris knocks on doors on North Great Georges Street, but I knock on doors in O'Hanlon Park in Dundalk, and when I go around knocking on doors asking people to vote in favour of the Lisbon treaty, I do not relish-----

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: -----asking at the same time if they want to take blasphemy out of the Constitution. I hazard a guess that Senator Norris might not get the response he wants when he knocks on doors in O'Hanlon Park.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: The joint Oireachtas committee again saw no need for a constitutional amendment in the short term, but rather that we might avail-----

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: -----of an appropriate opportunity in the future.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: We do not have the luxury of a "do nothing" approach.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: I will answer that. In the Bill, we are repealing the Defamation Act 1961. The continuation of the current provision at section 13 of that Act is not a desirable option. Section 13 provides for both monetary and prison sanctions in regard to blasphemous or obscene libel, offences which were presumed to exist at common law. However, the decision of the Supreme Court in the 1999 case of...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: That was an option. Some people have suggested that we could repeal the entire Act and leave section 13, which contains the existing offence of blasphemous libel. However, we cannot do that because of the Corway case. The Corway judgment stated that there was a need to address this issue, and it stated that we effectively had to come back to address the existing offence of blasphemous...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] : Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: Yes.