David Norris (Independent)

I thank my colleague and friend, Senator Quinn, for sharing his time with me. I am glad to be able to speak on this debate. I would have been here earlier, but I was in court – as a witness, I am glad to say, not as an accused person. However, I am in the curious situation of being enmeshed in two libel cases, one as the plaintiff and the other as the defendant. It is regrettable that I cannot talk about either case, because I would like to talk about both. Perhaps there will be an opportunity when the Minister introduces his Bill to speak about both because at that stage they will be in the past and not sub judice. I make no bones about my antagonism to the position taken up by newspaper editors. They talk about inhibiting publication, but what inhibits publication is their utter lack of fibre. There were plenty of articles they could have printed but they would not take the risk. There were articles in the past that they should have printed. They use the libel laws as an alibi for their utter gutlessness. This applies not only to newspaper people but to publishers and booksellers. I remember when one could not get Frank McDonald's book on Dublin in most of the major distributors because people were afraid of it.