Labour will oppose Privacy Bill - Rabbitte

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has said his party will vote against the Government's Privacy Bill because it could "shut down public-interest investigation" by journalists.

While he was not yet fully "up to speed" with the Bill, he said, "it seems to me that the offensive aspect of it is that there is no defence of public interest."

"I think a lot of politicians would agree that there have been some disgraceful invasions of privacy that are unwarranted and that the high-minded, high-standards section of the press lecturing us on it is heeded little in other areas of the press," Mr Rabbitte said.

However, he was "taken aback" by "the extraordinary trenchant remarks" of the editor of The Irish Times, Geraldine Kennedy, "who herself has had a distinguished record as a journalist, and I think her remarks are all the more credible for the fact that her newspaper in recent times has been quite favourable to Government".

Speaking on the Sunday Supplement programme on Today FM yesterday, Mr Rabbitte said: "I would not vote for any new piece of legislation that would shut down public-interest investigation . . . so I've no difficulty giving a very clear answer on that. We will not vote for that." He would not say whether he would seek to amend the libel laws if his party was in Government after the next election.