Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

It does not deal with the question of multiple publication. Each publication constitutes a separate cause of action, which is well established law and is being addressed in a different section of this legislation. Not alone does the person who wrote the article commit the tort of publishing a libel under current law, but also the newspaper, for example, that printed the article and the newsagent who sold the newspaper. This section does not address that issue, but the issue of the number of meanings that can be read into a single defamatory statement. The plaintiff is obliged under this section to plead all of those meanings in one action. He or she cannot take a separate action in respect of separate meanings that can be read into one article.