Results 2,761-2,780 of 18,727 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Security Industry. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am not only moving now. As I told the Deputy, but he did not listen, a forum was convened by the Garda in 2004. I told him exactly what happened, including the failures. He knows full well what happened last month when I called in representatives of the industry. It is not a matter of me only acting now. Operation Delivery has been in operation and has had success since June 2004.

Security Industry. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: As the Deputy is aware, last year I asked him and Deputy Jim O'Keeffe to assist me in pushing the private security services legislation through the Houses to ensure it would take effect. The Private Security Authority is independent and decides its own rate of progress. As the Deputy is aware, it does not take direction from me on this matter. It is not true that I ever suggested I would...

Security Industry. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy asked whether I am in a position to identify the culprits in a robbery, as I had been with regard to another robbery. While I am not in a position at this stage to reveal to the House the state of Garda investigations, they are well advanced on one of the robberies and good progress is being made on the more recent robbery. It would be wrong of me to satisfy the Deputy's desire for...

Security Industry. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: There are a number of them.

Garda Investigations. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: I thank Deputy Gregory for tabling this question. Deputies will be aware of the main facts of this distressing case. Sylvia Shiels and Mary Callinan were brutally murdered on the night of 6-7 March 1997. In July of that year the late Mr. Dean Lyons made an apparently full confession to investigating Garda officers of his alleged guilt in the double murder. Following consultation between the...

Garda Investigations. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: To clarify matters for the Deputy, I will ask the counsel to go through the considerable volume of documentation which was furnished to my office, together with a report, by the Commissioner last Thursday. I have no doubt that this is a grave issue. I agree with the Deputy that the serious issue in question is whether the alleged inculpatory statement made without any form of recording...

Garda Investigations. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: I do not wish to speculate about what I will be advised by the independent counsel regarding this matter. However, I accept it is a serious issue. I presume the Deputy would not ask the question if it were not a serious issue. I will report back to the House when I have the material available to me.

Prisons Building Programme. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am satisfied that the purchase of the 150-acre site at Thornton Hall in County Dublin will prove to be excellent value for money for the taxpayer and I have no intention of reconsidering the purchase. To put it in perspective, a survey carried out on behalf of the Office of Public Works in 2001 estimated the cost of refurbishing the 20-acre Mountjoy site at €336 million. At today's...

Prisons Building Programme. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: The process was not rushed and took a considerable length of time.

Prisons Building Programme. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy is well aware that a great number of locations in Dublin and adjoining counties were considered so the decision was not rushed. The Office of Public Works and the expert auctioneers and valuers who were advising it did not make a mistake of the kind the Deputy is suggesting and did not buy a pig in a poke. When the institution is built the Deputy will be the first to recognise that...

Prisons Building Programme. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: If the Deputy was referring to features in the locality, he may well be right but I venture to suggest that the Office of Public Works was careful to have the land it was purchasing inspected and no such features were apparent to it.

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: In my statement to the Dáil during the Adjournment Debate on Tuesday, 22 March 2005, I dealt with the deportation of the person concerned. In my statement during the Adjournment Debate in Seanad Éireann on Thursday, 24 March 2005, I dealt with the basis of my decision to allow the person to return. The proposal put to me to deport this person was made in the belief of the proposing...

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: If I had sufficient time, I would have said that the files are brought to my office for consideration, with a summary attached to each file. The volume of such files can be understood from the fact that since January 2001, 10,200 deportation orders have been signed by me or my predecessor. In 2004, the number of individual cases varied from ten to 20 on each working day, which is the result...

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: Deputy Costello made this suggestion but if I were to follow his misconceived advice, 50% of the people involved would be able to avoid deportation according to the figures that are available to me.

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: There is another point that is of significance to this discussion. The cost of providing asylum services across several Departments in 2004 was €370 million. Of asylum seekers, 90% are not found to be entitled to protection from the State. There is a considerable amount of money and deployment of resources by the State. I intend to enforce the law and wish the Deputies to know that the...

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: No. Between ten and 20 files per day on average are brought to my attention for decisions. Nearly all of them are summarised and it is my general practice to rely on the summary while having the entire file available to me in my office. I examine all the material in a minority of cases, some of which have files that are six inches thick, whenever I am in doubt or there is a particular matter...

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is true. These are the figures that have been made available to me.

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: I asked for these figures and I was told by officials in my Department——

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: That is not the case.

Deportation Orders. (12 Apr 2005)

Michael McDowell: As I promised the House in the face of a measure of scepticism, I am dealing in a generous and humane way with all parents of Irish-born children. Approximately 18,000 applications to reside in the State on the basis of parentage of an Irish-born child were made before the deadline of 31 March under the relevant scheme and that approximately 3,000 of that number have been granted leave to remain.