Following the dissolution of the government on 8 November 2024, the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 (the “Bill”) has lapsed and it will fall upon the next government to progress the reform of Ireland’s defamation laws.

Overview

The Bill is the most recent development in an extensive process of review and reform of Ireland’s defamation laws. Following the publication of the Report of the Review of the Defamation Act 2009 (the “Report”) in March 2022 the General Scheme of the Bill was published in March 2023.A Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Bill by the Houses of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice was published in September 2023 before the publication of the Bill on 2 August 2024.

As outlined in our previous briefing, the Bill proposed several reforms to Ireland’s defamation laws including:

• the abolition of juries in High Court defamation actions;
• the introduction of a ‘serious harm’ test for determining whether a statement defames a body corporate;
• the introduction of a new statutory defence for ‘transient retail defamation’;
• the introduction of a new statutory defence of ‘live broadcast’; and
• the introduction of new measures to tackle strategic lawsuits against public participation (“SLAPPs”) to give effect to the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/1069).

The Bill was also notable for its omissions. At the time of publication of the Bill, the Department of Justice highlighted that several additional key reforms were still being finalised and would be brought in as amendments during the Bill’s passage through the Oireachtas. These included:

• a clearer and simpler defence of fair and reasonable publication in the public interest;
• a statutory power for the Circuit Court to issue a ‘Norwich Pharmacal’ order, directing a digital services provider to identify an anonymous poster of defamatory online material. Currently, these orders can only be sought in the High Court; and
• a power for the courts to award damages for harm suffered by a person targeted by SLAPPs.

Looking Ahead

While the Bill has lapsed, given the strong momentum towards reform and the commitment of the previous government to review and reform defamation laws, defamation reform will likely remain a priority in the next Programme for Government. It will be interesting to see whether legislators take the opportunity to incorporate matters omitted from the Bill into the draft legislation, rather than simply re-introducing the Bill in its current form and amending it as the legislation passes through the Oireachtas.

If you would like to discuss any of the matters covered in this briefing, please get in touch with any member of our Litigation, Dispute Resolution, and Investigations Group.