Results 10,661-10,680 of 18,733 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——Ireland was a net emigration country which did not have an elaborate system established to deal with a flow of this kind.

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: That is now under control. We are now in a position to deal on a real-time basis with applications for asylum. I will not be cowed into using politically correct language or minimising language in regard to what was——

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——a very serious problem.

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I reiterate the following point because the Deputies opposite who are making the most noise may not like to hear it. Each year the State is expending in the order of €370 million to deal with this problem so it is not an insignificant problem.

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: To deal with the last point first, I do not know of any adjoining jurisdiction that allows asylum seekers who are sent there to live on the streets.

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I do not believe that any EU member state would leave asylum seekers on the street.

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: As far as I know, no member of the asylum appeals tribunal has had a record of never accepting an appeal.

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I am aware that some people who might be regarded as more generous have in respect of the accelerated categories of asylum seekers themselves had 100% rejection rates. These are appeals from a careful system where the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner has already turned them down. It is not as if this is a random group of asylum seekers coming from nowhere.

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: It is not the case that because one lives in a country with an unstable government and a violent climate that one can come to Ireland to live here as of right. That is not the law and not what the 1951 convention means. If that were the law, half the world would have descended on Ireland. It is not the law and it is a great mistake for people——

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I am sorry to have to enlighten the Deputy.

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: To take a state such as Liberia, where there has been chronic instability and violence, it is not the case that anybody who comes to Ireland from Liberia——

Asylum Applications. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——can stay here because of an unstable, violent atmosphere in their home country.

Garda Divisional Boundaries. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: For policing purposes the country is divided into six regions, each of which is commanded by a regional assistant commissioner. The duties of the commissioners are mainly operational and they are responsible for ensuring the operational efficiency of their respective region and, in particular, the quality of operational management exercised by their divisional and district officers. Each...

Garda Divisional Boundaries. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: Postal districts and the organisation of the postal service have little to do with crime.

Garda Divisional Boundaries. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I would like to see the people of Dublin 6W demanding to be moved back to Dublin 6 if they went to a different Garda station. I know that the Deputy is not seriously suggesting that we should structure policing around postal districts.

Garda Divisional Boundaries. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I accept the point that, as part of general reform of the Garda Síochána, the districts will have to be reviewed in one respect since we are now establishing local policing committees. If they are to function reasonably, they should correspond with understandable local authority boundaries, and that issue will be examined. Regarding the Dublin area, the facts say that Enniskerry is regarded...

Garda Divisional Boundaries. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I will make a point to the Deputy concerning an area near enough to home for him. Shankill is not radically different from Bray. The Dargle River is the boundary between one part of Bray and Little Bray and lower Shankill, but they are not radically different when it comes to establishing a Garda command-and-control structure. To suggest otherwise places one at the margins of reality. I do...

Garda Divisional Boundaries. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I do not accept the proposition that any garda would push a body into an adjoining Garda district or float it across a river to get another force to deal with the issue.

Harbours and Piers. (27 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Transport. Responsibility for Tralee and Fenit harbour and for 12 other regional harbours operating under the Harbours Act 1946 transferred from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to the Department of Transport with effect from 1 January 2006. The Tralee and Fenit Harbour Commissioners are responsible for the control,...

Criminal Prosecutions. (26 Apr 2006)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Deputies for the opportunity to clarify some of the questions raised in this House and elsewhere on this subject in recent days. Brian Murphy's death on 31 August 2000, which date must be remembered, was a tragic loss of a young man. I know we all sympathise with his family, not only in their obvious grief on his death but also in their perception that the criminal justice system...