Results 17,941-17,960 of 18,737 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: Article 2 makes that very clear. Senator Hayes and Mr. MacEochaigh's article missed this point. Article 2 confers on anyone born in the island of Ireland, regardless of their connection with this country in reality, an absolute entitlement to Irish citizenship, which is the issue we are dealing with. It refers to people who have an absolute entitlement, regardless of how tenuous their link...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: Jus sanguinis, citizenship by descent, as applied in South Africa and other places, was mentioned. It does not apply only in South Africa and I always notice that the harbingers of the left zero in on white South Africans as a group of people they worry about in this context. It applies in America too. It applies to Irish people in New England, Texas and California who feel a strong bond with...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: It does not exist. It is a myth. It is easy to say that there is a secret file somewhere and, since it is secret, one cannot disprove its existence, but it is not true. From the moment I became Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I had to grapple with a situation which at that time involved in the order of 10,000 to 12,000 asylum seekers coming into the country annually. That was...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: There was a fair amount of stick but as a consequence of the steps we have taken, the numbers seeking asylum in Ireland have gone down from 12,000 to less than 5,000. I have taken effective action to curb significant abuses. Our system remains the same. People are entitled to protection but I have done something about it. However, when I was made Minister in 2002, I was faced with a situation...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: That is the situation. Whether someone wants to say it is a very strong case or pleading, I will accept any language which is used. A strong, forceful case was made to me that the responsibility was mine. The programme for Government envisaged that there could be constitutional change and at that stage in 2003 I said to myself that I had better start assembling the case for constitutional...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: The Taoiseach never lied.

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: He did not deny it.

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: The Taoiseach said the Government had no proposal for such a referendum. That was true because at that stage the case was not made out and was not decided at Cabinet. The day I came before the House for the Fine Gael and others Private Members' motion on the timing of the referendum was the day on which the Cabinet finally made its mind up on that issue as well, not before. The reason I make...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: I do not claim to know it. I claim to have common sense and to draw some inferences from a pattern.

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: I cannot put my hand on my heart and say in respect of any individual that she was drawn to Ireland by the prospect of citizenship for her son unless I conduct a long-term interview with that person. That is not practicable. All the objective people who have looked at this matter, all those involved in the maternity hospitals and all the expert advisers in my Department examining migration...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: Not one of them would assert the negative but they will cast doubts about my assertion of the positive. That is as it may be. I wish to make one last point before I trespass too much on the patience of the House. There are two poles of extreme in all of this, the right wing, conservative, reactionary view that a homogeneous Irish society with pale skins, similar accents and so on is the...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: ——and that everything has been falling apart since that ceased to be. The other view, and it is equally unpleasant and equally unsustainable, is that it does not matter who comes into Ireland, we should not have any controls, that deportation of itself is racist, and that heterogeneity, as opposed to homogeneity, is an end in itself. I suggest that is equally untenable as a proposition....

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: ——not just yet. I believe that a single-issue referendum would be more divisive than putting this to the people on a day where there are other issues to be decided. I believe that positively as a proposition. Second, I believe it is a good idea to get a representative view of the Irish people, not just the conservative reactionaries on the one hand and the internationalist leftists on the...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: ——when they really want to sit at home and watch "Coronation Street" or whatever else. That is what would happen to me. I would have an unrepresentative turn out of Irish people in such a poll.

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: I now say it is sensible to have it on a day when people are going to the polls in any event. This was signalled at the beginning of the life of the Government, as part of An Agreed Programme for Government, as something that would be faced up to and if necessary a constitutional solution sought. We are constantly reminded by our Opposition critics that we are two years into the life of this...

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: "Tried to hear" is the optimal phrase.

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: Why can he not work here?

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: He is an asylum seeker.

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: Who opposed me hook, line and sinker, but the Senator?

Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)

Michael McDowell: Very effective.