David Norris (Independent)

I understand that the Minister is trying to make this section grammatically clear but would it not have been better in line 3 after the phrase "consisting of opinion," to include the phrase "and shall include the following"? There is no grammatical proscription on using the word "shall" twice, particularly when it covers slightly different elements. I am not insisting on it but it seems to flow better with "and shall" so that the section would read:

The matters to which the court in a defamation action shall have regard, for the purposes of distinguishing between a statement consisting of allegations of fact and a statement consisting of opinion, and shall include the following: