The lawsuit concerns an article by Harry McGee headlined Spotlight on Sinn Féin over its stance on Palestine after Hamas attack, which was published on Saturday 14 October 2023.

Mr Andrews is represented by Sheridan FitzGerald Solicitors in his action against both The Irish Times Designated Activity Company and Mr McGee, the Irish Independent reports.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar appeared to criticise Mr Andrews’ decision to sue in comments to the Dáil today. He said “personally suing a journalist [is] only designed to do one thing… to make journalists afraid, it’s designed to make them think twice about what they write, and I think it’s wrong”.

“There’s other ways to get redress and get corrections and clarifications and at the very least, the first step should be the Press Council and not suing a news organisation, particularly not suing a journalist individually, I think that is frightening actually,” he added.