Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The advice of the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel was sought. I was advised that this is a standard drafting provision and that no change is required to the text. The purpose of section 3(1) is to ensure that when this legislation is enacted, it will not have retrospective effect. Clearly, it has to speak from the time of its commencement. Section 3(2) is designed to ensure that the general law relating to defamation — the definition of what constitutes "publication", for example — will remain in force unless expressly abrogated or superseded by the Act. It is putting in place some sort of presumption in favour of the existing law. That is really the advice received on the amendments.