In my previous post, I noted that the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 has been restored to the Dáil Order Paper, and will therefore continue its journey through the Oireachtas.

Anois teacht an Earraigh, beidh an lá dul chun síneadh, and the Government will publish a Spring Legislation Programme. It has duly done so, and it lists the Bill among the Bills restored to the Dáil and Seanad Order Papers, to recommence at Committee Stage.

However, no Oireachtas committees have yet been established, because the row over Dáil speaking rights has not yet been resolved. The earliest this is likely to be achieved is at a meeting of the Dáil Reform Committee next Wednesday, but unless the Government amends its proposals, that meeting is unlikely to settle the matter. Meanwhile, the long delayed Defamation Bill has taken another step back.

As I noted in the post before that on Defamation in the Programme for Government, the Minister for Justice having carriage of the Bill is Jim O’Callaghan. As a backbencher speaking on the Second Stage of the Bill in the Dáil (noted on this blog here), he characterised the decision to abolish juries in the High Court as “short-sighted”, raising question as to whether he would amend the Bill.…

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Following the recent general election, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two main parties likely to lead the next government, have published an agreed draft Programme for Government (here, and here (pdf); update: final version here). It pledges to “tackle the practice of ‘retail defamation'” (p122), and to

Restore the Defamation Bill 2024 to the order paper and make passing the legislation a priority. (p122)

This is welcome, but hardly surprising. Each of these parties had made similar promises in their general election manifestos. Fianna Fáil (pdf) promised to

• Address shoplifting, by providing retailers with a statutory defence in cases where shoppers claim they have been defamed when asked whether they have paid for a product and/or for proof of purchase [p18]; and
• Restore the Defamation Bill to the Order paper at its current advanced stage, maintain its
  current approach and implement it within three months [p116].

And Fine Gael (pdf) promised to

• Enact the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024:
  This legislation will reform and modernise defamation laws, including a new statutory defence for ‘retail defamation’ cases to address the rise in claims made against retail businesses [p64].
• Enact the Defamation Bill within 100 days:
  Pass the Defamation Bill to balance freedom of expression with protections for individuals’
  good name and reputation.

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Part 2 of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 contains section 3, as follows:

PART 2

AMENDMENT OF SECTION 2 OF PRINCIPAL ACT

Amendment of section 2 of Principal Act

3. Section 2 of the Principal Act is amended-

(a) by the insertion of the following definition:

“‘Act of 2015’ means the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015;”,

(b) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “periodical”:

“‘periodical’ means—

(a) any newspaper, magazine, journal or other publication that is printed, published or issued, or that circulates, in the State at regular or substantially regular intervals and includes any version thereof published on the internet or by other electronic means, or

(b) any newspaper, magazine, journal or other publication that is published or issued, or that circulates, only on the internet or by other electronic means at regular or substantially regular intervals—

(i) by a publisher who is established in the State, or
(ii) the publication of which is specifically targeted at the general public, or a section of the general public, in the State;”,

and

(c) by the deletion of the definition of “summary relief”.

This section does three things. First, it inserts a reference to the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 (the 2015 Act) into the Defamation Act 2009.…

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The Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 begins as follows:

Bill

entitled

An Act to provide that defamation actions in the High Court shall not be tried with a jury; to give effect to Directive (EU) 2024/1069 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on protecting persons who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded claims or abusive court proceedings (‘Strategic lawsuits against public participation’) in so far as it relates to defamation proceedings; for those and other purposes to amend the Defamation Act 2009; and to provide for related matters

Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:

PART 1

PRELIMINARY AND GENERAL

Short title and commencement

1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Defamation (Amendment) Act 2024.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as may be appointed by order or orders made by the Minister for Justice, either generally or by reference to any particular purpose or provision, and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions, including the insertion of section 34C into the Principal Act.

Definition

2. In this Act, “Principal Act” means the Defamation Act 2009.

As the Explanatory Memorandum explains, section 1 is a standard short title and commencement provision, and section 2 defines the “Principal Act” as the Defamation Act 2009 (also here) (the 2009 Act).…

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