Labour and the Greens have signalled that they will oppose the Government's plans to regulate the press. They join Fine Gael in their opposition to the plan.
The package under consideration by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, would see a statutory council set up at the same time as the libel laws were reformed.
While a Labour spokesman said TDs and senators in the party had yet to have a discussion on the matter, he said the consensus in the party favoured a statutory system of regulation.
But in contrast to the proposals under consideration by Mr McDowell, he said Labour believed that the power to appoint members of the council should not be in the gift of the Government.
The Green Party's finance spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, said they rejected the Government's plan. "We think that that would be far too political and formed more out of spite that anything else. That said, we certainly don't support the UK model of a voluntary press council, which is not effective."
They favoured the establishment of an independent ombudsman working with a press complaints board. This is similar to the option favoured the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI).
Mr Boyle said the board's function would be to set standards. Its membership would be "acceptable" to the media industry, and to journalist and consumer interests. He said the Greens favoured a "massive" reform of the libel laws, to encourage and give greater freedom to investigative journalism.
The NNI, which met yesterday with Fine Gael, favours the establishment of a press ombudsman and press council. It wants statutory privilege to be granted to both offices.
The NNI opposes a system in which the Government would appoint members of a press council and such a council drawing up a code of standards.
While it wants such bodies to be independent, it says these bodies would need the protection of the law. The two bodies "must be acknowledged in law to enable them to carry out their functions", the NNI has said.
