Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

——significant dilution of what they were talking about. In fairness to Senator Hayes he proposes that there should be an obligation in the order to give due prominence to the correction order to ensure it is communicated to all or substantially all the people involved. This formula is already in place as set out in the last paragraph of section 28(2). Senator Hayes is somewhat less prescriptive in his approach than the original Government text or the Government amendment. The change is that the Government amendment allows a choice of time to be given to the editor or the publisher when the correction order would be published.

Although I am attracted to a non-interventionist approach, I believe the court must be in a position to state what kind of correction order it should be and the prominence it should receive. To be honest, it is unfortunate that the newspaper industry has proven on many occasions that it is niggardly and almost insulting in the manner it chooses to apologise for the libels and slanders it carries out. It always seeks to minimise the effect and always seeks to excuse itself and get away with the least possible apology in the least prominent position. If it could be carried between miscellaneous and lost and found, that is what they would do. Everybody knows this and everybody who has ever been involved in defamation law knows that this is what is done. The miserable little items are headed "Apology" or "Explanation". If they can use the word "explanation" rather than "apology", they are delighted because they have not apologised. There is not a genuine sense of contrition. Going back to my catechism, neither is there a sense of firm purpose of amendment, which one always had to remember. As Senator Norris said, they wait in the long grass and come after one again. On many occasions one pays through the nose for whatever redress one has obtained.

Senator Norris says he was ambushed when appearing on television recently. If one sits in the front row of "The Late, Late Show" audience, one cannot expect to have a controversy-free outing on the programme.