Results 3,721-3,740 of 18,728 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: It would have to be an area through which members of the public would not have to pass in order to gain access or make a purchase of products other than alcohol. Only alcohol or alcohol-related products would be sold therein and nothing else of significance. The choice is between that kind of regime or something akin to the tobacco cabinet, where everything is kept in a cabinet into which...

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: We are talking about relatively modest wines.

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: On Sunday mornings I see them pulling a veil over their wine display because of some stupid law that Minister McDowell brought in donkey's years ago or did not demand. I do not believe that is a social evil or such a display is normalising alcohol. The point was made earlier that 8% of alcohol in Ireland is sold through smaller shops and we are, therefore, dealing with a tiny fraction of...

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: I forgot about Tesco vodka.

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: The Leader should stick to section 20.

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: Not this way.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: Arising out of the Leaders remarks to Senator Craughwell about who he might suggest might take the initiative in Defence Forces reform, as I understand it Senator Craughwell is taking the first steps to become, under the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: As to what Senator Ardagh was saying about the projected increase in population of 1.1 million by 2030, the Senator also raised the need for physical planning to accommodate that. In particular, the Senator refers to local authorities having to get their act together. I merely wanted to raise the recent remarks of the Dublin city manager to the effect that public open spaces are to be the...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: -----in supplying land for redevelopment of Dublin. This shows me that there is not an understanding at all.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: What is needed for Dublin is an agency for urban renewal. I have said this before in this House and I say it again. One cannot rely on Dublin City Council which, by the way, is the proprietor of most of the worst areas of dereliction-----

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: -----and neglect in this country, and which is demolishing half of its own estate now because of dereliction and poor management, to be the motor of Dublin urban renewal. I ask the Members of this House to go and look at Ballymun after its so-called regeneration. It is a bleak place. It is no more a community now than it ever was in the past. If one wants to regenerate cities, one must...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: It is gone.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: It is not any more.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: I know a failure when I see a failure and I do not think Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell has been in Ballymun very often recently.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: Which is useless at its job.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: It spends €750 million a year and has 6,000 employees. It is useless.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: Regarding some of the remarks passed earlier, I too, like many others, was deeply upset by the violence we saw in Catalonia on our television screens. However, I will raise one point by way of observation: it is strange that in this House and this country, there should be such active support for the right of a north-eastern portion of any country, which is more prosperous than the rest of...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: It surprises me.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: The point I wish to make concerns the local property tax. I note in today's newspaper that a small one-bedroom worker's cottage in Colliers Avenue in Ranelagh sold for over €300,000. That is €1,000 per square foot. I looked at comparable prices - what one would get for that kind of money - in the midlands of this country on one of these property sites and noticed one house...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: I draw the House's attention to the report of the Seanad Public Consultation Committee on children's mental health, which was launched earlier. In particular, I congratulate the members of the committee, including the Leas-Chathaoirleach who served as Chairman, and not least my colleague, Senator Joan Freeman, who was rapporteur of the committee, for all the hard work they put into focusing...