Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The purpose of this proposed amendment to section 15 is to provide for certainty that absolute privilege will attach to the reporting of family law cases. Section 40 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 provided for a relaxation of the in camera rule, with the key safeguard that the confidential nature of family law cases would continue to be respected. Section 40(3) specifically provides that nothing in any enactment can prohibit the preparation of a report of proceedings in family law cases on the publication of the decision of the court in those proceedings. The identities must not be disclosed. That is a safeguard of great importance. Reports under section 40(3) of the Act do not attract absolute privilege at present and it is important to clarify the law in that regard.

Senator White inquired as to whether the provisions in section 15 are new. They are new; they were not contained in the 1961 Act. This is a codification of the law on absolute privilege. For example, the absolute privilege enjoyed by a judge in judicial proceedings was something that rested in common law rather than in statute. In this section we are providing an exhaustive list of the circumstances in which absolute privilege can be claimed. Having examined various issues, this amendment was tabled to cover that point.