Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I want to end the agony because we are undergoing a charade. I do not want to provoke the Minister into another love-in with the press.

I indicated that I was not wedded to a particular form of words. The flexibility provided by the Minister in amending the legislation to the effect that a correction order shall specify "the period not later than the expiration of which, the correction order shall be published" is extremely helpful. He suggested the court should not be unnecessarily specific. I am concerned that a court might indicate that a correction or apology should be in 20-point font and located three inches from the top of the page to the left hand side and down six columns. The courts should merely state it should be given due prominence, that it should be contained on the front page, that it should of a particular size and that it should appear within a particular time period. That would meet my requirements.

There is a great deal to be said for the approach suggested by Senator Mansergh. At the very least some signal should be provided on the front page of a newspaper that a full apology is to be found in a prominent position within.

Although I do not want to restart the Minister on his proto-Nazi point by referring to the former Unionist Parliament in Northern Ireland, over the years of the Stormont Parliament, the only Bill ever passed which was sponsored by the Nationalist minority was the Wild Birds Protection Act 1931. This amendment of mine is like the Wild Birds Protection Act 1931. It was the only amendment to which I was ever going to get anyone's attention, but the Minister has gone some distance towards accepting the spirit of it. I hope he might be able to enlarge a little on the question of how a court would treat a request to specify. Would that be in punctilious detail or is it a question of a general direction on the matter?