37. (1) A person who commits an offence under subsection (1) of section 36 is liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years, or both.

(2) A person who contravenes a direction or a condition specified in a direction given under subsection (4) of section 36 commits an offence and is liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both, and

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years, or both.

(3) (a) Where an offence under section 36 has been committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of a person, being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate commits an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she committed the first-mentioned offence.

(b) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (a) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate.

(4) It shall be a defence for a person who is charged with an offence under section 36 to prove that at the time of the alleged offence the person was not aware, and neither suspected nor had reason to suspect, that the matter alleged to have been published or broadcast was a matter specified in that section.