Results 10,021-10,040 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: The Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, published a discussion paperââ
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: I appeal to you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, to maintain order.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: The Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, published a discussion paper on this matter and elicited the views of the public, only a small fraction of whom supported change in this matter.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: The reason for all this is the policy of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has consistently been not to make such a change for the very reasons I have outlined. Some Deputies who have spoken with passion in this House on these matters in recent times have sat at the Cabinet table while that policy position of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform was maintained...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: It has been suggested that warning signs that the law was unconstitutional were ignored. The Law Reform Commission never gave that warning. The law in question has been considered in its operation by every court in the land, right up to the Supreme Court, regularly and exhaustively. The X case is one of many examples of this. In the past ten years, there have been at least 25 cases where the...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: It has been suggested that if the Government had acted differently, the risk of perpetrators being released on foot of the CC judgment could have been avoided. That is another black lie.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: The Government and I are doing all we can to ensure that the CC judgment does not unlock the gates for convicted perpetrators of heinous crimes. We are mounting a case in the Supreme Court in which we are making the case that justice and common sense and the constitutional values that protect the victim, society and the criminal justice system, and maintain certainty in the criminal law, must...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: As the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I knew immediately that this decision could have extreme consequences involving possible premature release from prisonââ
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: ââof those who had committed vile crimes against defenceless children, many of them of very tender years. I am as well placed as most Members to say that the crimes against these victims cry to heaven for justice. While the absence of the "honest mistake" defence in cases of this nature has always been recognised as a rigorous application of law, it went unchallenged in our superior...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: Therefore, I explored the legal option with the Attorney General very carefully.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: As my colleague, Deputy Brian Lenihan, pointed out yesterday on "Today with Pat Kenny", such a comprehensive declaration of the unconstitutionality of a criminal statute by the Supreme Court is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, in this country's history as an independent State. The first criminal case that was affected involved one of the appellants to the Supreme Court itself. That...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: I have conferredââ
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: I understand that copies of my script are on their way.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: I have conferred with the Garda Commissioner about the issue of released prisoners in this category. I will say more in that regard when and if the Supreme Court reaches a verdict on foot of today's judicial review hearing, which may also settle the legal issues relating to the validity of the continued detention of the six people I have mentioned. I will turn shortly to the substance of the...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: Before I do so, however, I will refer briefly to some of the criticisms of the Attorney General, the Government and me arising from this situation.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: As I have said, the primary accusations are that, somehow, we have been dilatory in our response to this legal judgment and that through incompetence we were unaware of the impending decision, the effects of which could somehow have been averted if some pre-emptive legal measures were taken by the Government.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: Highly political charges are being made. I regret I have to use the time of the House to refute themââ
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: ââespecially on a day when we are co-operating to bring a necessary law into effect.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: The legal situation that has emerged from the Supreme Court decision requires not only an appropriate legislative response from the Oireachtas but also a response from the Executive. To cope with the new situation I have described to the House, I propose to augment to a considerable degree the resources deployed by the State and its agencies in the investigation and prosecution of sexual...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)
Michael McDowell: I want to say a few things about the Bill.