Results 8,741-8,760 of 18,729 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: Amendments dealing with those two matters are being prepared and they will be tabled on Committee Stage.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: If Deputies see anything else in this legislation that needs to be addressed, I will accept any reasonably based amendment.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I gave that guarantee in private and I am giving it in public today. I want to finish on this point because my time is up.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: There are times we engage in adversarial debate in the House and I have been as good at that as many other Members.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I do not blame people for taking the opportunity on this issue to be critical of the Government and to demand accountability. I do not resent that activity.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: When the dust settles and the frenzy is over——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——it will be seen that my colleagues in Government, myself and the Attorney General have acted competently, honestly, truthfully and with the best interests of children in mind.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: When the dust settles, issues not raised until this morning in the media as to why the Law Reform Commission proposal was not adopted, the downside, the additional suffering for young children going through the courts process, the additional stress on people coming up to court cases and the fact that many people will be dissuaded from making a complaint will be live issues in the courtroom...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: When that truth is widely understood, it will be accepted that successive Ministers for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and successive Governments, including Members who are on the other side of the House, made the right decision in regard to this issue.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: It was only when the Supreme Court laid down that we could not continue to protect children by reference to their age——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——unless we also made them subject to cross-examination on these issues, it was only when we were pushed to that point that we agreed to change the law to allow for what will be a measure which has negative consequences for the protection of children in society.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: Let no one in the House think that the measures we are taking today are an unalloyed improvement in the lot of children. Let no one in this House believe that this will make the protection of children easier or the lot of abused children in the criminal justice process or in the courtroom context, any less agonising. On the contrary, it will make it significantly more unpleasant for those...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: If, at the end, the price of protecting children by reference to their age is that we have to introduce after 16 years of resisting such a proposal, a measure of this kind to allow perpetrators to cross-examine children through their lawyers in court on the issues I have mentioned, we will do it.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: The public has been asked to believe the falsehood that there was no good reason why this reform was not made, that it was an obvious reform, that it is in the interests of victims of crime, that it is something which was self-evidently a change that should be brought about, those people will learn over the next few days——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——and, unfortunately, our children will learn in the coming years, that what we are doing today has been forced upon us reluctantly by the Supreme Court against our better judgment. It is with that very serious warning that I commend this Bill to the House.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I thought the Deputy said it was a Fianna Fáil Bill.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: That is fantasy.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: That is an invention.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: It is false.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: It was done at the instigation of the Director of Public Prosecutions.