Results 5,781-5,800 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is the point I am making. If I begin to go through the law on sexual assault, this Bill will become immensely long and complicated and I will start addressing problems which nobody thought about before we started this evening's discussion. I do not want to reopen the question of whether a genuinely held belief, even though unreasonable, is a defence because, according to my...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: If we amend the Constitution to provide for strict and absolute liability offences, we will be able to deal with the issue in a much more comprehensive way. At present, we are dealing with an imponderable.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: We will have to revisit the issue.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: When I realised last Friday that we had gotten this wrong, I decided we should search extremely carefully to make sure no other mistakes have arisen because I could imagine what the gentlemen opposite would say if my good friend Finbarr O'Malley found an error.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I can appreciate that. We did a thorough search and, in terms of these procedural aspects of the law, we dealt with every case in which sections 2 and 3 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1935 were mentioned in any other statute. We have updated the law to take account of that.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: There are two typographical errors in this section. The top of page should read paragraph "(aa)", not "(ia)", and section 4(3) should refer to "12B", not "12A".

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I understand the clerk proposes to deal with them as typographical errors.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: The 2006 Act prohibited certain sexual acts, including sexual intercourse, buggery or acts described in section 4(1) of the 1990 Act such as sexual defilement involving humiliation and aggravated circumstances of that kind. However, what we have now is a situation in which a girl aged between 15 and 17 years can engage in heavy petting with a boyfriend aged over 18 without him committing an...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: There was confusion in the House and I eventually said if I was wrong, I would——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: When I eventually unravelled what happened, a view that it was not defensible to make this distinction emerged and if we were striving for gender equality, on which the Bill was predicated, we should not say it is okay for girls to do with their boyfriends what boys could not do with their boyfriends, subject to protecting children from potentially serious damaging sexual acts, set out in the...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am not arguing that the Deputy's point of view is ridiculous or anything like that. I am not getting on some politically correct high horse and saying there is no substance to the Deputy's point. What I am saying is that one might say very heavy petting, including masturbatory behaviour, by a girl aged 16 years with a man aged 36 or 56 years——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——is extremely unattractive as a notion, but it is not a crime.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Order for Second Stage (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Second Stage (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." The primary purpose of this short Bill is to remedy an error in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006. The particular point with which we are dealing was brought to my attention last week by Deputy Rabbitte, for which I thank him. It was a drafting error for which I am politically accountable and regretful. While the error is not as...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Second Stage (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: No parent or politician has a differential approach to this matter based on other party political beliefs or philosophies. As all Members of the House share a common desire to protect children from crime of this nature, I have approached this issue by accepting the spirit of the Labour Party Bill and most of the substance of the Fine Gael Bill and introducing additional material which I...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Second Stage (6 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is more or less correct, but the Deputy oversimplifies the matter.

Written Answers — Citizenship Applications: Citizenship Applications (1 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: Minor children under the age of sixteen who are in the care of non EU national parents who have been granted permission to remain under the IBC/05 scheme, avail of the same permission to remain in the State granted to their parents. When such minor children reach sixteen years of age they are obliged to register with the Garda National Immigration Bureau in their own right.

Written Answers — Asylum Applications: Asylum Applications (1 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is not the practice to comment in detail on individual asylum applications. As the Deputy will be aware, applications for refugee status in the State are determined by an independent process comprising the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal which make recommendations to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on whether such status...

Written Answers — Garda Strength: Garda Strength (1 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I have been informed by the Garda authorities, who are responsible for the detailed allocation of resources, including personnel, that the personnel strength (all ranks) of An Garda Síochána increased to a record 13,000 following the attestation of 299 new members on Thursday, 16 November, 2006. This compares with a total strength of 10,702 (all ranks) as at 30 June, 1997 and represents an...

Written Answers — Residency Permits: Residency Permits (1 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: The person in question was granted permission to remain in the State on 21 February 2006 under the revised arrangements for parents of Irish children born prior to 1 January 2005, commonly referred to as the IBC/05 scheme. An application for the renewal of this permission to remain in the State was received in my Department on 13 February 2007. My Department acknowledged receipt of this...