Results 4,681-4,700 of 18,728 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: We will return to that point later too. In the meantime, a Mr. James Dillon of Dillon Auctioneers of Dunshaughlin had written to the Irish Prison Service offering a site at Balrath in County Meath for consideration for the project. His first letter, dated 14 September 2004, showed that he was proposing to sell a large farm at Balrath to the Irish Prison Service for the new prison. He had...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: I have spoken to Mr. Webster and to the official in the Irish Prison Service to whom Mr. Dillon wrote and I am quite satisfied that Mr. Dillon contacted them on his own initiative and without any prompting from the Irish Prison Service, or anyone representing or advising the Irish Prison Service. The lands at Thornton were only 2,500 yards away from the Coolquay site and were being offered at...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: If the Deputy listens he will hear the facts. On 13 January, Mr. Webster wrote to the vendors of Thornton Hall, on foot of his conversation with Mr. Byers, indicating the terms upon which the Irish Prison Service was willing to purchase their property and asking their solicitor to prepare the necessary contract documents to effect the transaction. I hope those dates are clear to everybody in...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: There was no factual basis for the makers of the programme to say so. All he did was to indicate that he might consider doing so.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: His letter makes clear that he had made no firm decisions as to the "strategy" he was following in regard to this site. No attempt was made to inform the viewers that the site selection committee at its meeting of 18 January had before it a site evaluation report prepared by Clifton Scannell Emerson Consulting Engineers and McCabe Durney Planning Consultants. It was evident to anyone who read...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: No attempt was made to explain to the viewers that in the course of a year-long purchase process no suitable land was offered in County Dublin to the site selection committee at agricultural prices or any amount close to those prices. No attempt was made to explain to the viewers that the price agreed in respect of Thornton Hall was the lowest price of all the sites evaluated as suitable by...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: At that stage, he immediately reported the matter to the committee and offered to absent himself if it caused any embarrassment. I believe he acted with totally impeccable propriety regarding that matter. He acted in the interest of the Irish Prison Service and with the utmost professional integrity. The House might be interested to know that my view of him is generally shared. I note, since...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: He did not do so. In the course of a studio discussion, reference was made to questions put to me as Minister by the programme makers. Those questions were furnished to my Department only yesterday at 2.50 p.m., when I was visiting a child care facility in Cork before my visit to the National Ploughing Championships. It is self-evident that the film package on which the programme was based...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: That is a very good point. He should tell that to the people of Meath the next time he is there.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: With more gardaí, there would be no prisons.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: During my tenure as Minister, I will also be introducing a new set of prison rules to replace the antiquated ones that now govern our prisons. With the Tánaiste, I am determined to bring to an end the scandalous neglect which the State has shown prisoners with mental health problems and psychiatric illnesses. It is our intention to replace the Victorian Central Mental Hospital with a...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: Then, when he was not happy with that, he attempted to rezone Mountjoy so that it would have no replacement value as a greenfield site.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am aware that a small number of residents in the area, which is thinly populated, given its proximity to the city, are conducting a well-funded campaign against the siting of a prison facility in their area. They have placed advertisements on the front of newspapers, and I commend them on exercising their democratic right. They are also entitled to lobby Deputies.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: I can understand that they have concerns about such a development in their back yard. I daresay that there is no place in the Dublin area — I would like Deputies to tell me where there is one — and few places on the whole island where the siting of a prison would be welcomed universally by local residents. However, as public representatives we must look beyond narrow, local sectional...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is very disappointing, therefore, to see both the Labour Party and Fine Gael strongly backing the interests of a group of residents in one area, however well-intentioned, and showing so little regard for the welfare of prisoners or the wider public interest in ensuring we have an effective and humane prison infrastructure. The sole purpose of the motion is to try to generate negative...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: This proposed resolution will not affect that one way or the other. Similarly, the suggestion in their joint press release that the resolution will result in the Comptroller and Auditor General conducting an inquiry into the transaction before it is completed is bizarre.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is complete nonsense and has no basis in either law or reality. If they even half-believed their own propaganda, one would think that they might have tried bringing forward this motion back in January or February when the purchase was announced, rather than waiting to do it a matter of days before the closing date, when there is not a remote possibility of any inquiry being completed...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: However, I will not be party to a motion that implies the Comptroller and Auditor General would not of his own accord look into this transaction and that pretends this resolution will do something it cannot possibly do.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: How can the Members opposite talk about value for the taxpayer when they have opposed all cost effective proposals——

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——and schemed to block the sale of Mountjoy Prison and tried to artificially lower its resale value? That is what members of the Labour Party on Dublin county Council did, at Deputy Costello's behest. How can I or the general public take seriously a party that proclaims it is concerned about value for the taxpayer when at the same time it argued for the redevelopment of the already...