Results 14,221-14,240 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I do not wish to criticise the model adopted in Northern Ireland but, for instance, the equivalent body for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police comprises three persons while in Britain a significant number of members make up its equivalent commission. This issue is one of practicality. The House should consider a few of the features of the legislation, one of which is that the ombudsman...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It could well be but maybe not. If three people had been selected in Northern Ireland and I said I wanted one I would have been beaten around these Houses for doing the opposite of what I am now doing. I have listened carefully to the debate and have substantially amended the proposal. There is an argument for involving more than one person. I also believe there is an argument for having a...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Eddie Fullerton issue is a live one.

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I make the point to Senator White in particular, that there are many things which apparently it would be rude and against the thrust of the peace process even to mention, which are never to be investigated in Northern Ireland. Take the case of the poor girl in Derry who was shot and whose parents were told by the Provisional IRA that it was the British Army who killed her, knowing that was a...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The question we must ask in those circumstances is whether that would be an appropriate use of Garda resources. There are people whose homes are under attack today and will be tomorrow, people who want to walk the streets in safety today and plots to commit crime which require the activities and intelligence of skilled detectives to be applied today in surveillance. Am I to draw all these...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I cannot comment on an individual case in this House. I do not want to be deflected into doing that. There are many individual cases, many of which are current and known but I cannot in the course of this debate comment on their merits or demerits because that is not what we are doing here.

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: There are many fora for doing so but the purpose of this ombudsman commission is to deal with contemporary complaints in general and only in exceptional cases will it be employed on a retrospective basis. It is open to the ombudsman commission, if it appears to it to be desirable in the public interest to do so, without receiving a complaint, to investigate any matter which appears to...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am sorry.

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is section 94 in the Senators' documents but this is not of my doing. The procedure of this House is not imposed by me. Senator Tuffy mentioned resources, which will be a significant issue. The present scale of the Garda Síochána Complaints Board would not be justifiable as an indicator of what will happen when the ombudsman commission is put in place. The complaints board has a budget...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The four amendments in this group comprise a core set of provisions in the Bill. As I said during the Dáil debate on the Morris reports recently, the findings of the tribunal are profoundly disturbing and shocking at times and call for a strong, effective response from the Government. Notwithstanding that a relatively small number of gardaí were involved in what Mr. Justice Morris uncovered...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: On the last point, there is no intention to change the pyramid of ranks in the Garda Síochána Bill. The current ranks are Commissioner, Deputy Commissioners, Assistant Commissioners, chief superintendents, superintendents, inspectors, sergeants and gardaí, and there will be reserve gardaí as well if that comes into operation. Those are the only ranks which exist, just in case anybody is...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The sergeant must ask the question. If such questions could only be put by a neutral outsider, the member would hide behind a smokescreen of evasion and prevarication as long as the neutral outsider was not called in. We cannot have that culture in an Garda Síochána.

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Perhaps we should get going.

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Before addressing the group 4 amendments, last evening in this Chamber, Senator Higgins made allegations in regard to the Garda Commissioner. He suggested in particular that he had misled the public. He suggested also that I had shown shock in public at a misleading statement of the Commissioner and further suggested that I had probably in private reprimanded him on that account. These were...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: He would not mislead the public in this way. The suggestion that I reacted by surprise or incredulity to his remarks is wholly malicious and completely false. The suggestion that I reprimanded or had a conversation in private with the Commissioner in regard to this issue is completely false. The suggestion that the Commissioner had any involvement, good, bad or indifferent, with the decision...

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I have nothing further to add.

Seanad: Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report Stage (Resumed). (29 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: In the main, the purpose of the amendments made to the ombudsman commission provisions of the Bill was to provide for the appointment of a chairperson of the ombudsman commission. On Committee Stage in the Dáil, I accepted in principle the point made by Deputies Jim O'Keeffe and Joe Costello that it was desirable that one of the members of the commission should act as its titular head and as...

Written Answers — Irish Prison Service: Irish Prison Service (28 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is the Government's intention, in the event of industrial action by the Prison Officers Association, to deploy members of both the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces to the prisons as necessary. Training of personnel from both services in the running of the prisons has been undertaken. Clearly I would prefer to avoid this eventuality. However, given the current circumstances, it would...

Written Answers — Prison Staff: Prison Staff (28 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Prison officers voted to reject the proposal for organisational change in the prison service by a majority of about two to one. I cannot offer an explanation why the proposal was rejected despite a strong recommendation for acceptance by the national executive council of the Prison Officers' Association. By any standards, the deal on offer was extremely attractive. It included a pensionable...

Written Answers — Residency Permits: Residency Permits (28 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The question tabled by the Deputy refers to representations made on behalf of a person who made an application for permission to remain in the State under the revised arrangements announced by me on 15 January 2005 for the processing of applications from the non-national parents of Irish born children born before 1 January 2005. Some 18,000 applications for permission to remain have been...