Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and her officials again. By the end of today, the Minister will have been in the Chamber for 16 hours dealing with many aspects of this Bill. We agreed not to subject it to a guillotine because of its importance and that we would go through the Bill. I would hope that during today's discussion that brevity and concise contributions would help. However, if we debate many issues in depth at this Stage, I would ask that when we come to Report Stage, we do not re-debate all the issues. The Minister has given a commitment to reflect on some of the views here. I express sincere thanks on behalf of those of us who have dealt directly with the officials and the Minister to try to come up with some suitable wording on this. Given the debate here, I hope that we do not revisit all the issues on Report Stage and that if colleagues have issues, they would consult with the officials in advance of that.

Those of us who sat on the joint committee dealing with this faced the challenge around what was awful and lawful. Where do we draw the line between somebody throwing a couple of nasty comments and a process of harassment? I would say to Senator Ruane that if one reads section 139A(3) in conjunction with 139A(4), as the Minister said, it makes it fairly clear what the threshold required is. I am quite sympathetic because it was one of the things the joint committee struggled with. The other thing is that it is quite subjective. Something might be water off a duck's back to me, if someone was trying to bully or humiliate me, but someone else could find it much tougher in a different situation. It is difficult but I think it is covered by the definitions in the section.