Results 4,241-4,260 of 18,728 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Garda Deployment. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I fully appreciate that people who live in the environs of large stadiums want the area and the patrons of the event to be properly policed. In Lansdowne Road, for instance, in my constituency, one aspect on which the residents have a very strong view, especially in the context of its redevelopment, is that there would be a comprehensive traffic management plan which would come into effect...

Garda Deployment. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Nobody has given me any tickets.

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am in the process of finalising the details of the proposals for the defamation Bill and following Government approval, which I have obtained, I intend in due course to publish the heads of the draft Bill so that they are in the public domain. As in the case of other Bills, in the course of formal drafting I will take account of the comments I receive on publication of the draft heads. I...

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It all depends on what one means by the term "statutory". A purely voluntary body would be wholly ineffectual because its judgments, decisions and so on would be subject to being sued. In other words, it would not have any teeth. By the same token, a statutory press council of the other kind, in which the State, through the Government, decided what a press council would be and who would serve...

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: No, it is possible to have two points of view. One of them is that privacy is a very complicated issue. For example, at one level, one could claim the intrusion into Leas Cross nursing home was a breach of patient privacy whereas at another level, it could be claimed it was in the public interest that the information should be published. How, in a statute, to work out the exact line of...

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: These are the kinds of cases where drawing an exact line between what is and is not permissible is difficult. The Government's point of view is that we should not shy away from the issue just because it is difficult if we can come up with a law which is a help and protects privacy. The Attorney General and I will work on that in the next few months. The Deputy asked for an indicative...

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I will give the Deputy a Delphic reply to his last question: watch this space. With regard to funding, I have never known the media interests in Ireland to have an unwillingness to fund an independent press council. They could not reasonably expect the State to fund a press council which was genuinely independent and not accountable to the taxpayer. That is not a runner.

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The media in our society are sufficiently well-to-do to pay the cost to the community of policing their own activities through a press council. It would not be fair to tell pensioners, hospital patients and others that the resources they seek should be taken away and given to a press council, when the media are in a good position to fund it.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: We live in a State with a constitution. All organs of the State are bound to uphold the Constitution and its values, and to act in a manner both consonant with it and demonstrably constitutional in every respect. That is not written into every statute but it is a fundamental rule of our law that every body created by law, and every organ under the Constitution, is bound by a fundamental duty...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am tired of being told that everything we do must reflect everything that happens in Northern Ireland and that we should not diverge, in any way, from that model. It is a case of "Four legs good, two legs bad". If it is north of the Border, it must be perfect, and everything that we do down here is second-rate in comparison. In section 18 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998, the...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: To the grounds that they had in Northern Ireland were added the road traffic and State security issues here, since the Garda Síochána is not only a police force but also a security force. If the Member wishes to know, that is where it came from. Since, by definition, in the language of most Deputies in this House, everything done up there is absolutely apple-pie perfect——

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——this provision comes from there.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I wondered whether I might elicit that from the Deputy.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: That is where it comes from. Into that section we inserted the provision "In performing its functions, the Garda Síochána shall have regard to the importance of upholding human rights." If subsection (4) had been transposed and made subsection (1), and the first thing stated regarding the functions of the Garda Síochána had been that "In performing its functions, the Garda Síochána...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I hope that we are not changing it. It provides that a member of the Garda Síochána must make a declaration on the following lines: I hereby solemnly and sincerely declare before God that— I will faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the Garda Síochána with fairness, integrity, regard for human rights, diligence and impartiality, upholding the Constitution and the laws and...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: However, everyone must remember that no right, as the late John Maurice Kelly used to say in his jurisprudence lectures in University College Dublin, has reality unless a corresponding duty is owed. We live in a world where many people speak about their rights, but it is very unfashionable to talk about corresponding duties.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: If we have a right to live at peace within our community, we have a corresponding duty to ensure that all our actions are compatible. As parents, we must bring up our children to respect those things. In the way that we behave towards others, we owe duties as well as simply claiming rights. Too much of today's political debate consists of people attempting to categorise their demands and...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: People say that what they want is their right and that others owe them the vindication of those rights. If I am to accept Deputy Jim O'Keeffe's amendment, I propose to replace the word "respecting" with "vindicating".

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am satisfied to do that. However, this would leave me with a slight conundrum regarding what should happen to subsection (4).

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: If the House is willing to accept a modification to Deputy O'Keeffe's amendment No. 22 to read "vindicating the human rights of each individual" and a corresponding deletion of subsection (4), I can live with that. To retain both would seem like poor draftsmanship, involving a repetition of what is said in the top paragraph at the bottom paragraph. If there is a consensus in regard to...