Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome and I am delighted to see him in the House again.

This short Bill, the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2014 is worthy of consideration. I am delighted to see that the Minister of State will consider it. Senator Crown and his team have come up with very sensible legislation. I believe it is good for the customer, which is the taxpayer, who will not have to fork out money for actions by public bodies.

Senator Crown referred to PR companies and expressed his concern about these companies. I remember some ten years ago, the then Minister for Health speaking to me about the number of quangos, although the Minister of State is loath to use that term, that were around the country. What really got to him was that whenever one of these bodies wanted an appointment with him, a PR company made the appointment. Sometimes there were two quangos in the same town doing the same job and each had a PR company.

I can understand Senator Crown's concern about that. The legislation will also bring us in line with the UK and the United States. It is worth noting that in some other jurisdictions public bodies are allowed to sue in cases where there may be a major negative financial impact on them. It would be interesting to hear from the experts in that area. The Minister of State has touched on it. In many countries there are laws in place to prevent public bodies from suing for defamation because public bodies are not seen as having a ‘reputation’ entitled to protection. In Article 1, a human rights organisation points out that public bodies are "abstract entities without a profit motive, they lack an emotional or financial interest in preventing damage to their good name". While the European Court of Human Rights has not called for a blanket ban on defamation claims by public bodies, it has held, “The limits of permissible criticism are wider with regard to the Government than in relation to a private citizen, or even a politician.”. If we prevent public bodies from suing for defamation it may encourage more free speech. The concept with which Senator Crown has come up is that public bodies may sue for defamation but they are limited to one euro. I think that makes a great deal of sense.

Do we have figures on how much money has been spent by public bodies in suing for defamation in the past? I would not be surprised if Senator Crown has that information for the past number of years. I would like to learn how much taxpayer's money has been spent. If we do not know, we need as a starting point to have more transparency in this area.

I was listening to the Minister of State as he spoke, and he referred to a symbolic gesture of limiting it to €I, which I though was well thought out. He referred to the very radical proposed intention and pointed out a number of concerns. I was urging the Minister of State to accept the Bill on Second Stage and debate these concerns on Committee Stage. The Minister of State certainly caught me on the hop because in the very last line of his speech he states exactly that this is what he would do. I was listening to what he was saying rather than reading it in advance. He did catch me by surprise because that is exactly what I hoped would happen.

It is not, however, enough because in the past I have seen the Government accept a Bill on Second Stage and we never heard another word about it. I am delighted to hear the Minister say "substantial amendment of the Bill will be required and proposed by the Government on Committee Stage.". I hope the Committee Stage debate will happen soon. I congratulate the Minister on accepting the gist of the Bill and I congratulate Senators Crown and Barrett for coming up with the concept, which is worthy of consideration. However some of the points made by the Minister of State are worthy of consideration as well. I think they can be sorted out.