Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2023
444. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Justice if her Department is on schedule to publish the Defamation (Amendment) Bill in Quarter 4 of 2023; if she plans to remove removal of jury trials in defamation actions from the scope of her Department’s review of the law on defamation in view of the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Higgins v. the Irish Aviation Authority; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32837/23]
View answerOn 28 March 2023, Government approved publication of the General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill to reform our defamation legislation.
The General Scheme takes into account recommendations of the report of a major review of the Defamation Act, 2009, which was carried out by my Department and which I published in March 2022.
The General Scheme provides for the removal of juries in High Court defamation proceedings in line with the general consensus amongst the submissions received during the Defamation review.
As the Deputy will be aware, juries are not common in civil proceedings so their involvement in defamation proceedings is one of a small number of exceptions rather than the norm.
Notwithstanding the Supreme Court judgment in Higgins v Irish Aviation Authority, which should bring more clarity to awards in defamation cases and reduce the risk of very disproportionate awards, more generally the determination of cases by judges should result in more consistent outcomes and increase certainty and clarity in this complex area of law by ensuring that, where a defamation case proceeds to hearing in the High Court, there will be a written judgment explaining how the law has been applied, the reasons for the decisions made, and the implications for other such cases.
As the Deputy will be aware, pre-legislative scrutiny of the General Scheme by the Joint Committee on Justice is ongoing. I look forward to receiving the Committee’s report, in due course, which I will consider.
It is my intention, as set out in the Justice Plan 2023, to publish the Defamation (Amendment) Bill in Quarter 4 2023.
