Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

I agree with Senator Walsh. The paragraph as written provides that failure to respond in the circumstances outlined in the paragraph shall not entitle the court to draw an inference. This means that if the person in respect of whom the article is being written does not respond, an inference can be drawn. The point that has been made is correct.

The general situation is that anyone who has time to think about a question that is posed will be able to give a more complete and appropriate response, but in many cases we are talking about situations where people are door-stepped or caught on the hop and given a cryptic account of what is suggested will be in an article. There is a general belief by many that they cannot win by responding, that in some way their response will feed the story and feed a distortion of a publication. There is merit in what Senator Walsh said that the situation where an inference can be drawn should not be particularised and instead it should be that there is no entitlement to draw an inference simpliciter.