Results 5,381-5,400 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Written Answers — Public Service Contracts: Public Service Contracts (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: The detailed information required by the Deputy is not readily available in the format requested. As the Deputy will appreciate, having regard to the breadth of activities undertaken by my Department and by the agencies under its aegis, the extent of the procurement activity is necessarily very extensive, running perhaps to several hundred procurement instances in the period in question. In...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: One must remember that jurors are judges of fact. While it is true they take an oath and are obliged to act collectively, nonetheless they are judges of fact in a particular case. Irish law gives jurors a function in assessing damages in certain cases such as assault, fraud and other related matters to avoid the scenario in which although one person establishes the facts of a case and...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: In such circumstances, a judge might be quite sympathetic to a newspaper. Although he or she might have disagreed with the jury's decision, as it decided there was a defamation the judge would proceed to award damages. Such a judge might believe a matter to be comparatively trivial although the jury might have decided that in the circumstances, it was not trivial. In a defamation action,...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: Therefore, in this context, direction in respect of damages means the legal basis on which jurors are to proceed. This is important because jurors must be told they cannot go mad and cannot simply choose any old figure, thereby bankrupting the newspaper and teaching it a lesson.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: Jurors cannot be so informed because a jury's function is not to bankrupt a newspaper but to compensate the plaintiff. Jurors must have their function explained to them. When juries assessed damages in personal injuries matters, a doctrine applied, and in so far as I am aware still applies, namely, there are certain sums of money for general damages that should not be exceeded in respect of...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: Yes, I am talking about general directions. The judge will be able to bring the jury's mind to matters which will help members make a judgment which will not be overturned on appeal. If an accusation that Senator Norris took a bribe appears in a newspaper——

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: If such an accusation that Senator Norris took a bribe is made seriously——

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: Exactly. Such an accusation must be dealt with more seriously than an idiot store detective challenging one in the wrong as one leaves a supermarket. Different graduations of seriousness exist. One may experience ten minutes of embarrassment and one's neighbours may state, "Did you see Norris? He was stopped coming out of such-and-such a shop." That may be bad but it is completely...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: No, not this. They were lobbying for the total abolition of the jury damages.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I tried to be reasonable.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: As a Joycean scholar——

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——the Senator's insistence on accessible and understandable language astounds me.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: As I understand it, it has always been the rule, except in defamation cases, that juries should be given directions as to all of their functions, including the assessment of damages. When personal injury cases were decided by juries, it was the case that they were given directions by the courts how they should approach the issue of awarding damages. I am trying to achieve rationality in this...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: The phrase "directions to the jury" is well understood and is not a term of arcane art. If one inquires what stage a case has reached and the judge gives directions to the jury, it is clear what he or she is doing, namely, setting out the principles on which jurors are to approach the case. The function of a judge in a jury trial is to instruct the jury as to the legal principles it must apply.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: It would be a usurpation of the jury's function to say a case is worth €45,000, not a penny more nor less, and to direct the jury to give that amount. On occasion, the Court of Criminal Appeal has reversed directions by trial judges not to acquit someone because that is a jury function. It is not the function of a judge to tell jurors to write "Guilty" in a box on the jury paper. We are...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: If public figures appear before courts suing for damages, it is far preferable as to their truthfulness and damages that 12 men and women should decide the issue than a single judge, who will immediately be accused of getting it wrong or will be attacked in a newspaper article by someone who does not agree with the outcome of the case. To impugn the verdict, people will look through the...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am not.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——significant dilution of what they were talking about. In fairness to Senator Hayes he proposes that there should be an obligation in the order to give due prominence to the correction order to ensure it is communicated to all or substantially all the people involved. This formula is already in place as set out in the last paragraph of section 28(2). Senator Hayes is somewhat less...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I know the Senator was.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Senator took issue with Fintan O'Toole's article some time ago on the proceedings of this House. I am in the extraordinary position that Fintan O'Toole, for once in his life, agrees with my position on these matters. This gives me an uneasy feeling, not least because I remember on one occasion in the same column he vituperated against me for deceiving, lying and all the rest because I...