Results 2,821-2,840 of 18,727 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: Senator Lawlor always comes in-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: -----with these little mots justes. I do not know what point he is making. Our Judiciary is excellent. It is not the case that somebody who has just seen the inside of a court is as good as a candidate from the Judiciary.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: Service on a jury does not make one an eligible full-time judge.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: It is absurd to suggest-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: I ask the Minister to indicate why the amendments made in the Act of 2002 to the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board provisions in the 1995 Act are to be done away with and the requirement for appropriate experience of the practice and procedure of the Supreme Court and the High Court to now be dispensed with as a criterion for eligibility. Why would we do that at this stage, with this...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: I want to talk about leave to withdraw. I would say to Senator Bacik that I know why she is withdrawing amendment No. 76 at this stage but-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: I know why she is proposing to do it-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: I can speak on the question of whether she should be given leave to withdraw it, which is what I am doing now.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: When the Chair asked that, he did not look in my direction. In any event, the point I am making is that this is an important amendment. Even though, in one respect it is only the word "and" or "or", it has significance. In a second respect, the postgraduate research is also an important issue. Everybody carries out non-postgraduate research. As Senator Norris said, this idea that-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: On a point of order-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: The Minister should be aware that somebody cannot just put an amendment down and withdraw it and have the House assume that it is about to decide something of importance and then say it is not deciding it because I am withdrawing it. Once an amendment is tabled it cannot just be withdrawn unilaterally. The Member has to get the agreement of the House.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: Senator Bacik now has the agreement of the House and I am grateful to her because she has explained it.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: No.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: I am merely saying that the Minister seems to think that any Member can table an amendment and withdraw it and just pull the rug out from under a debate without the leave of the House. That is not true.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: There was no amendment down to remove the first few lines of this section which is about the eligibility of a District Court judge after two years' service to be "qualified for appointment as a judge of the High Court". I am against that proposition for the reasons I have already explained and I am not going to repeat them now. I do not want to delay the House unnecessarily. I am against...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: I have not been following the debate exactly but I have the impression that the Oireachtas has already passed legislation for the technological universities.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: Are they? Does the 1997 Act apply to them?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: Has the other legislation been passed?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: I am not trying to be troublesome but I believe the legislation is already enacted for those technological universities.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)
Michael McDowell: If we do not change this we may miss the bus on this definition of a university.