Results 781-800 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: They are entitled.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: I will answer the Senator in my reply. There is a very simple answer.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: The child can obtain a passport within weeks.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: There are more horses ready to bolt.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: Passports for investment were not the worst thing in the world in the 1980s.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: I will try to deal with the issues raised without going into all of them in detail. This has been a lengthy and substantive debate. If I were to attempt to reply to everything to the extent I would like, we would be here until late this evening and I do not wish to do that. Since taking up office as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform I have been intent on pursuing policies on...
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: I emphasised that as far as I am concerned this is a process about the integrity of our citizenship law. This is a Bill designed to put one simple question to the people. It is not a complicated question. It is a question of whether the people want to restore to the Houses of the Oireachtas the capacity to deal with the circumstances in which children born to non-nationals become citizens or...
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: No. This point was carefully considered at the time. Article 2 does not impose on the Protestant Unionist community of Northern Ireland citizenship of the Irish State. It gives them the birthright and entitlement to claim it if they so wish. It does not make anyone automatically a citizen but it does say that anyone born is the island of Ireland has an absolute entitlement to claim that...
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: It was designed to comply with our obligations under the Vienna conventions and so on that we would not impose on the children of diplomats something they did not want.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: That is the point.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: That is the point I am making.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: That is the distinction with which there is no problem.
- Seanad: Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (30 Apr 2004)
Michael McDowell: It has been argued that this measure is inconsistent. It is not inconsistent because there is an entitlement which is not automatic citizenship. The blackest of black Unionists, so to speak, in Northern Ireland is entitled to claim citizenship of this State as of right if he or she was born in the island of Ireland, but we as a State do not impose the obligation of fidelity to the nation or...
- 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.