Results 3,361-3,380 of 18,728 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: In any event, I am strongly of the view that this is a misguided idea. I appeal to the members of the Fine Gael Party to do what another senior journalist, Stephen Collins, advised them to do in an article he wrote on 29 June 2017 in this respect. In an article "Fine Gael risks core values by appeasing Shane Ross", Mr. Collins stated, "Fine Gael has stumbled into a dangerous confrontation...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: We are on section 10.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: Conceding this idea of a lay majority goes against the grain. That is not my view, it is that of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, who stated, "It was certainly resisted, very strongly, by the entire Fine Gael delegation." He stated that, so why should we not trust him at least in that regard? Is he to be believed? He is to be believed because he was boasting...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: We will come to that-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: ----but it does affect the decision as to whether this function is handed over to a group which is, in the majority, composed of lay people if we are in fact handing that function to a group of people receiving a rate of remuneration which would not be appropriate given the seriousness of the business it is carrying out. We are entitled to some clarity. If I do not get in on section 10, I...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: Or a person who is issued with an indictment.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: I do not think Senator Conway-Walsh has said anything on this matter.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: The Public Appointments Service, PAS, is referred to as the body which will organise the selection process. During one of the breaks for a quorum, I Googled what the PAS is, and I was told it is different from the Public Appointments Commission, PAC. I would like to know what the PAS is. It is not defined in the Bill, as far as I can see. Is it defined in the Bill? I do not think it is.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: It is the body that selects the lay people in section 10.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: It is mentioned in section 12. I wonder who these people are. We have been told they will be independently selected by the PAS, but there is no definition that I can see of the PAS itself. What is it?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: The PAC is not the PAS. In my Googling, I was told the two things are different.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: The PAC is a statutory body but this nebulous thing, the PAS, does it exist as a body at all?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: It is referred to as the PAS, and when one Googles it one is referred to the Department of the Taoiseach but is not told anything more about it. This is supposed to be a body which is to be given a statutory function in selecting the independent members. I would like some clarity as to who these people are. Who decides who sits on the interview boards? Who decides what happens in the PAS?...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: It is a vague phrase which is thrown into this statute without any definition. The only thing I know is it is not the PAC, because the website for the PAC says it is not the same as the PAS. If it is some kind of an attribute, quango or loosely defined body of some kind, I would like to know who is on it, who is not on it-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: That would be a very good question.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: I see this absence of a definition. We are expected to approve a lay majority selected by the PAS, and we are not told what the PAS is. We are not told exactly how this nebulous body, the PAS, would constitute a committee to make the selections. It does not seem to be regulated by statute. Is it subject to ministerial direction? Who is it? What is it? We simply do not know. On...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: I was quoting from a note of a meeting on 2 March 2017 between the then Taoiseach, the then Tánaiste, the Attorney General and Justices O'Donnell, Ms Finlay Geoghegan and George Birmingham. The note says that a number of points of concern regarding the proposed new model for judicial appointments were made by the Judiciary representatives, including the need for legislation to be based...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: Who appoints its members?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: What about Mark Tighe's article in The Sunday Times?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)
Michael McDowell: You left me.