Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators. I listened carefully to their comments. I thank them very much considering what we are doing. We are trying to prevent people abusing the law to intimidate or bully individuals who engage in public participation. If we have a public consultation or a forum open to the public they should not be threatened with defamation actions, the power of expensive lawyers or threats of being made insolvent. This is so that we can have a fair procedure. As one Senator pointed out, if this type of situation arises it could have a chilling effect and a situation where people did not want to go ahead or participate in a particular forum for fear of being sued in return.

I take on board the comments of Senator Martin that we need to be careful there are no unintended consequences and that a genuine contribution from somebody in a public consultation is not judged to be a SLAPP or used in the opposite way to which it was intended. One of the reasons we propose that Ireland opts-in at an earlier stage to this Commission proposal is that we can bring along our own body of law and negotiate and make sure our own Defamation Act fits in with what is happening rather than waiting for it to pass through the Council and the European Parliament and opting in at the very last stage. This is the intention. As Senator Martin said, we have options in Irish law, such as an Isaac Wunder order which is for vexatious litigation. We want to see how this fits in with what is being proposed in the EU. Not everybody has the same common or civil law jurisdiction or system. I thank the Senators very much and the Cathaoirleach for facilitating the debate.