Results 1,201-1,220 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, line 18, to delete “shall be construed in accordance with section 4” and substitute “means 30 April 2021, or such other date as the Minister may fix by order”.

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I was speaking about the general background to the particular situation we find ourselves in now. This amendment and the other amendments in my name and the name of Senator Boyhan are to try to put firm dates on the process of transfer. I want to expand the point. The Minister of State recently visited Dundrum. She did not see the interior of the old building for various reasons. I went...

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I will not press the amendment. As the Minister of State can appreciate, the reason Senator Boyhan and I put down the amendment was so there could be a more discursive debate on the subject than would have happened if we simply had a Second Stage debate, which would have petered out after short contributions. In that context, I thank the Leader of the House for agreeing to an extension of...

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I infamously said that. That was false optimism on my part. We have to have places for serious criminals for whom preventative detention is important, such as gangland figures.We have already increased the remission for good behaviour from one quarter to one third, and all of this has been done by regulation, etc., but we should not be under any illusion that we will be able to reduce...

Seanad: Deportation Moratorium (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Second Stage (9 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House. I listened carefully to her and find myself in agreement with everything she said. Having been in her position for five years between 2002 and 2007, I understand completely the significant difference, as Senator Ward said, between what is available as a statutory power and the discretion as to whether it is used in any particular circumstance. I am sure...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Second Stage (8 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I agree completely with what Senator Buttimer has just said about FDI and Taiwan. In today's papers, I noticed that the Taiwanese foreign minister has asked for free countries across the world to show solidarity with them, which is so sad, because I visited the country recently and I saw a free democracy working perfectly. The minister said that there was an imminent threat of invasion from...

Seanad: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: Senator Higgins is being reasonable about this amendment, therefore I do not think I need to say too much about it. However, our immigration controls must be practical and workable. They cannot be an obstacle course of impenetrable presumptions against the proper conduct of immigration control. Therefore, it seems to me that were we to accept the amendment in its present form, it would...

Seanad: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I believe this amendment is reasonable. If we are to designate or dedesignate countries as safe countries for the purpose of this legislation, there should be an onus on the Minister who makes these decisions by statutory instrument to report to the Houses of the Oireachtas on the rationale of why a country has become safe or unsafe for these purposes. This does not prevent a Minister from...

Seanad: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: The problem is that the Minister does this by statutory instrument. Frequently these Houses are not in a position to adequately understand the rationale behind a statutory instrument before it is made. Having an annual report is a good idea and should be acceptable to the Minister. If she has made changes to the list of safe countries, we should have an annual report on Ireland's approach...

Seanad: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: In view of what Senator Higgins is saying, I agree with the Minister State that there should be scrutiny and reporting but the Houses of the Oireachtas will be in a position to do so without a plethora of reports and therefore, that seems reasonable. I want to note for the record of the House that the Leader’s amendment to the Order of Business has effectively been to guillotine the...

Seanad: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I wish to make one brief comment on the Long Title, which will not delay us. The United Kingdom leaving the European Union is a real tragedy. Whatever the views other member states may have of this, Ireland should adopt the position henceforth that the United Kingdom would be very welcome back into the European Union as soon as the people of the United Kingdom so wish and that no obstacle...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Engagement on Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (2 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister. I also welcome the pragmatic flexible approach he is indicating that Ireland is taking. People sometimes elevate principles to too much importance when practical matters are more important. Following on from Senator Lombard's point in respect of fisheries, my take on it is that when Ireland and the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1972, we had different...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2020: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I will support Senator Boyhan's amendment and make a couple of general observations. Something that has perhaps been accentuated by the pandemic, but was certainly happening for some time before it, is a change in people's general access to information. At one level, one could argue that the Internet provides extensive access to education, in that from one's living room one can consult any...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2020: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I would say that in large measure all of those political organisations have shrivelled to a paper existence now. Whether it is the comhairle dáilcheantair of Fianna Fáil or the constituency executive of Fine Gael, these are the organisations that actually run political parties. Branches of these organisations do not meet in the way that they used to, and the clock cannot be turned...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2020: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: She said "end the debate".

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2020: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: Let us go back to basics here. Currently, it is mandatory to have a public meeting. That is the law. This Bill is changing the law and saying it is no longer to be mandatory to hold a public meeting. That is the purpose of the Bill. The explanatory memorandum makes it clear that it is not intended as a pandemic measure. It is intended to be a permanent part of our law from now on that...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2020: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I am not talking about the development plan. I am talking about the relationship between councillors and the executive. I am saying the executive is not always a kind of meek servant of the council. Quite the reverse is the case in that it can have its own agenda items. Senator Fitzpatrick knows as well as I do that, to some extent, one has to play ball. There has to be a bit of...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2020: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: Maybe Senator Boyhan would reflect on the fact that Senator Higgins is a lifelong opponent of limiting length of contributions.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2020: Committee Stage (30 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: We have been talking about the need for public consultation, public meetings and the like. Given that we are in the middle of a Covid-19 pandemic I would like to take this opportunity to draw to the Minister of State’s attention that there is one venue for public meetings in Rathmines Town Hall which, unfortunately, is used for ridiculous other purposes. A tiny group of ad...

Seanad: Reopening Ireland (Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment): Statements (26 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister of State. I want to make a few general points about opening up the economy. I am not one of these sceptics who believes in deriding the measures taken by the Government but I am sceptical about blanket measures which are non-discriminating in the effects they have and are not based on proper science. I echo the remarks made by Deputy Eoghan Murphy recently in a...