Results 21-40 of 183 for going forward speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Electoral Reform Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Jul 2022)

Michael McDowell: ...up with a gimmick. The gimmick he decided to come up with was to announce, without any internal discussion whatsoever in the party, at a party dinner - I think it was in Citywest - that he was going to propose the abolition of Seanad Éireann. Many people in Fine Gael were astonished and shocked at this stunt, which it was, but that was his proposal. When he got into government, he...

Seanad: Higher Education Authority Bill 2022: Committee Stage (6 Jul 2022)

Michael McDowell: ...should not be rushed through. Senator Craughwell spoke about the fact that even the Minister’s own speech was reduced to 15 minutes. He continued by saying that he sincerely hoped: ...we do not go down the silly route of guillotining the Bill at some stage before the end of the session. We can always come back to it in September. It might be thought that those were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Ban on Sex for Rent Bill 2022: Discussion (21 Jun 2022)

Michael McDowell: I compliment Deputy Cian O'Callaghan on bringing forward this legislation and pay tribute to the Department of Justice for having an open mind as to whether it would go with it or do something else. I might put a few points before the committee for consideration. What we are dealing with is, clearly, a first cousin of prostitution and pimping, whereby somebody is induced to provide sexual...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 May 2022)

Michael McDowell: I welcome Senator Malcolm Byrne's remarks about Seanad reform. I want to remind the House that the Minister with responsibility for Seanad reform informed us that he was going to bring forward proposals. I think that was a year ago.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 May 2022)

Michael McDowell: Hold on. Senator Buttimer will have his opportunity. The Minister of State told me that there was a proposal to establish among the Government parties a group that would come forward with proposals which I would be shown last October. That group has not been established let alone come forward with any proposals. I have come to the conclusion that this is an elaborate smoke screen for...

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Compensation) Bill 2021: Second Stage (22 Mar 2022)

Michael McDowell: ...that they carry out under the criminal assets legislation. I support that, of course, but the one thing I would query is the complete exclusion of civilian staff of An Garda Síochána from the remit of the Bill. It seems to me that, going forward, we will have a situation where many technical functions associated with criminal investigations now carried out by members of An...

Seanad: Citizens' Assemblies: Motion (23 Feb 2022)

Michael McDowell: Generally speaking, I am supportive of citizens' assemblies if they are to perform a function that would otherwise not be performed. On the local government structures for Dublin, for instance, it is a failure of imagination and determination at a political level rather than some issue on which the great majority of Dubliners, however congregated, are to come up with some magnificent formula...

Seanad: Horticultural Peat (Temporary Measures) Bill 2021: Second Stage (30 Nov 2021)

Michael McDowell: -----who are promoting this Bill. It is important that we do something practical now for the mushroom industry. I have known about this from another aspect of my life, which I will not go into. We have known for more than three years that this crisis was coming but nobody stood up to say they were going to deal with it and save the mushroom industry. There is no point in coming in here...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...and adopt statements and the like. I have a major problem with saying that, for instance, the position will be occupied on a kind of rotating basis depending on the recommendatory business that is going on when there is other day-to-day business which has to be carried out by the commission, such as preparing reports for Government or Oireachtas committees, handling its relationship with...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (26 Apr 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...the evidence that the prosecution intends to bring is one thing, and I fully agree with Senator Ward about that, but giving somebody the right to start testing the evidence on a preliminary basis goes one stage further. With regard to striking out the whole proceeding on the basis that there is not a prima faciecase disclosed, the standard of proof is that one assumes that all the...

Seanad: Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (23 Apr 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...been drafted from the point of view of practitioners but all they are doing is signalling. The amendment is not drafted from the point of view of massive banks. It is merely saying that if we are going to remove this constraint, let us not have a situation where debtors will be advised not by conscientious personal insolvency practitioners but by people who will say to them that, by the...

Seanad: Children (Amendment) Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (5 Mar 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...child, nothing can be published in the court report identifying the victim, insofar as the victim's identity would tend to identify the witness' identity. If that is the law towards which we are going, it is a profound mistake. There should be flexibility. It is wrong for the parents of a deceased child to be in a position where, because one of their other children was a witness in the...

Seanad: Children (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2021)

Michael McDowell: I agree with Senator Higgins. I walked away from the amendment I originally proposed in order to get a coherent text on the basis that the Minister wanted her amendments to go through. The amendment I originally proposed tried to bring elements of flexibility into the determination and not to put a judge into a straitjacket or put everything into a binary yes-no, that this is the law, that...

Seanad: Covid-19 (Transport): Statements (26 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...the position of members of the Green Party, in particular - were all against one-off housing in rural areas as a bad thing. With the roll-out of broadband technology and such developments we are going to have to rethink this notion that it is a good idea to concentrate people in villages and towns for environmental reasons. I wonder if that is sustainable and I do not think that it...

Seanad: Children (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (15 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...of the decision of the Court of Appeal, but bearing in mind its scope, that this Bill was introduced to the House. In parallel with the Independent group's initiative in introducing this Bill to the House, my good friend Deputy Jim O'Callaghan introduced a Private Members' Bill to much the same effect in Dáil Éireann. Both he and I discussed between us, and subsequently with...

Seanad: Children (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (15 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: I do not wish to add very much to what the Minister has said. I thank her for her contribution and appreciate that she went to the Cabinet and got leave to support this legislation on terms, so to speak, that the Cabinet understood. However, I ask the Minister not to write that in stone either because there are issues to be teased out.I will give the Minister an example. If there were a...

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...what the Minister of State was doing. It was to see the site and to see what could be done with it. At that time, the Minister for Health and Children and Tánaiste was Ms Mary Harney. She had gone to Dundrum and said it was worse inside than her worst nightmare. Things may have improved a little but the building was rather antiquated. I want the House to know this for the record....

Seanad: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: .... We must all face up to the fact that post Brexit, the common travel area is a matter of huge importance to this country, both North-South and east-west. Our arrangements in this country are going to have to be such as are compatible with and not subversive of the UK's right to control immigration as well. It is not spoken about much but there is going to have to be a degree of...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2020: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...items. Senator Fitzpatrick knows as well as I do that, to some extent, one has to play ball. There has to be a bit of possession football both ways in order for the game to work at all. To go back to the basics, it is the case that we are being invited to change the law permanently to get rid of something that was considered in 2001 to be good, that is, the mandatory requirement for a...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2020: Second Stage (18 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...and announced his intention to establish an all-party implementation group and spoke strongly in favour of the principle of amending the way Seanad Éireann was elected. He indicated that he was going to establish a group which over an eight-month period would come forward with proposals on how, in turn, the proposals of the Manning report would be implemented. Subsequent to that,...