Results 11,941-11,960 of 18,734 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy forgets that——

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——he throws against the Garda the fact that drugs seizures have increased. Does he want the Garda to do its job or not? He throws against the Garda the fact that it has seized more firearms, thereby suggesting circumstances have worsened.

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: It is a case of the Garda doing its job. If there were no increases in drugs seizures or charges for possession of firearms, we would then have a problem because it would be clear that policing was not working.

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: That is true.

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: That is true.

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: In the Deputy's day, heroin was the big problem.

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: As the Deputy knows, the Bail Act has been enacted. All the aforementioned criteria are relied upon regularly by the Garda. Whether the Judiciary feels the applications by the Garda to withhold bail are correct is a matter for it to decide. I share the Deputy's apprehension that the bail referendum and Bail Act introduced on foot thereof do not seem to have a reforming effect on circumstances...

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: If the Deputy examines the Bail Act, he will see that all the criteria he has just mentioned are set out therein.

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: If the Deputy is suggesting there is a mandatory requirement to withhold bail in certain circumstances——

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: I will consider that proposal but cannot be sure it would find favour with the majority of people. On Deputy Costello's point on cocaine, Deputy Gregory has tabled a question on the matter and I believe an attempt is being made to elbow in in front of him on the issue. Huge amounts of cocaine have been seized and these seizures influence the figures on which Deputy Costello is relying to...

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: I have never heard one suggestion from Deputy Costello——

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——that would improve the fight against crime.

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: Every measure I have introduced to deal with the fight against crime has been resolutely opposed by him.

Crime Levels. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: He is a dog who barks all the time but never comes up with the goods.

Drug Seizures. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: I am informed by the Garda authorities that while there has been an increase in the seizures of freebase or crack cocaine in this jurisdiction over the past three years this represents a small proportion of the total number of cocaine seizures recorded annually. However, the Garda authorities also inform me that most of the recorded seizures of freebase cocaine, particularly in the past two...

Drug Seizures. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: It is a sensible idea and I will entertain it and give it as positive a response as possible. It is important that there be an inter-agency response and that all State institutions dealing with this problem have a focused and clear view of the problem when it is present in a relatively confined place before it escapes out of the area where it is now located and becomes endemic. It is not...

Drug Seizures. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: Ireland will not be a soft touch for crack cocaine. Any section of the community which believes that the Government will be a pushover on this issue will find that the opposite is true. I agree with Deputy Gregory that in the same way as the Criminal Assets Bureau involved different groups ranging from the Department of Social and Family Affairs to the Revenue Commissioners to the Garda, it...

Residency Permits. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: An examination of the documents submitted in support of this application referred to by Deputy Broughan indicates that the person concerned originally entered the State in 1994 on the basis that her father was employed by the Turkish Embassy in Dublin. Part of his duties with the embassy included the delivery of evening courses in Turkish language and culture at Trinity College. As the...

Residency Permits. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: The young woman's father was not, for the reasons I outlined earlier, an employee of Trinity College. He was attached to the Turkish Embassy and employed and paid by the Turkish State to deliver lectures in Turkish language and culture in Trinity College. That is the information I have. He was not an employee of Trinity College.

Residency Permits. (2 Feb 2006)

Michael McDowell: I am told the man in question was not employed by Trinity College.