Results 2,641-2,660 of 18,755 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: Through the Chair, I do not think it is necessary to tell the Cabinet, having received a list ranked in order of preference, that when they sit down to look at it they must consider the candidates in the same order.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: I think they are capable of saying that.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: We are all elected under the PR system and we understand what one, two and three means.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: I am not in favour of Senator Bacik's amendments. I ask her to withdraw them in the fullness of time but it is important that we should at least have an opportunity at this stage to express some preliminary opinions if the amendments are going to stand.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: I accept that.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 86a:In page 28, to delete lines 23 to 25. Amendment No. 86a, in my name and those of Senators Boyhan and Craughwell, proposes on page 28-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: Amendment No. 86a reads: "In page 28, to delete lines 23 to 25." It refers to section 41(2) which reads: "Nothing in subsection (2) shall be construed as limiting the advice the Government may give to the President with respect to the appointment by the President, under Article 35 of the Constitution, of a person to be a judge." Amendment No. 86a is connected to amendment No. 86b, which...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: That is a good point. In any event, it seems the Minister is with me on that point and he hopes to persuade the Dáil that it is mistaken in that provision. The second amendment tabled by Senators Boyhan, Craughwell and I, states that no provision of this Act affects in any way "the function and the duty", which is the important point. It is not simply an entitlement of the Government...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is a responsibility and a duty. If the Government believes that one person is better and more appropriate than another, it is under a constitutional duty to make the first person a judge-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: The Government is entitled to balance the courts in terms of gender but if it believes that one person is more appropriate than another then it is not just its entitlement to make an appointment along those lines, it is its duty to do so, full stop.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: The words "function and duty" are carefully chosen. The amendment goes on to provide that, in advising the President on appointment to judicial office under Article 35 of the Constitution, the Government will "advise in accordance with its own judgment". That must be the case. It must be the Government's judgment, based on its duty to do the right thing by the people and not to be...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: I welcome any indication of flexibility on the issues that have been raised. The Minister should remember something. He pointed out that this has been a long debate and that these matters have been raised before. Like me or any other Senator, he has been in a position to table additional amendments to cater for these issues in order that we might discuss them on Committee Stage. He has...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: Why should everything be kept opaque? What really worries me is that although the Minister might be disposed to making amendments to deal with some of the issues I have raised, the first debate is going to take place in the august Cabinet room where, thus far, there is at least one person who appears to believe that the points being made along these lines are being made in bad faith and...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: Perhaps I misinterpreted what the Minister read from the typescript in his possession. I thought he was signalling an openness to revisiting some of the issues he previously indicated that he was unwilling to examine. I may have been wrong to see flexibility in that regard. Maybe I am just witnessing a desire to appear to be reasonable-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: -----that is unaccompanied by any evidence that there will be reasonableness. I am of the view-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I welcome that. The Attorney General is just one matter. If the Attorney General is to be made free to provide the Government with details of the entire list of runners in the case with a view to giving advice as to whether, over a number of shortlists which the Government may receive, say, for the High Court or the Court of Appeal, there...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Leader is being monitored in offices so he had better keep going.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I join in the general expression of Christmas good wishes and thanks to the staff of the Seanad Office and to all of the staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service for the wonderful work they do for us in this establishment. On the Order of Business yesterday, Senator Colm Burke referred to a nameless Deputy - he was being very careful - who, in a committee session, queried the status and...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I remind that Deputy, who was criticising me on that occasion, that I received 5,661 first preferences and 15% of the vote in my constituency.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: If we are going to compare first preferences, all I want to say is that I look forward to the time when this House is reformed and many more of us will be in a position to dismiss remarks of that kind. On a more serious note, in respect of the person in question, there is a grinch associated with Christmas but it is not necessary to be a grinch the other 364 days of the year as well.