Results 1,181-1,200 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: Senator O'Meara is absolutely right. I am still sticking to my guns on this matter.

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: To shorten the matter, if Senator O'Meara were to move an amendment to her amendment and substitute "21 days" for "7 days", I would be disposed towards accepting it.

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: This is a technical amendment.

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: I can assure the Senator that while in the RDS I did nothing other than spend my time studying this amendment. The matter is already covered and it is not necessary to provide for it twice in the same section.

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: Regarding amendment No. 25, I do not imagine that many plaintiffs who are not obliged to lodge an affidavit at present would decide to do so and I am not clear why the proposed amendment should apply to plaintiffs. Why should defendants not be able to lodge voluntary affidavits? The wording is not consistent with the rest of the section, which refers to "swearing" rather than "filing" an...

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: It still seems it is implicit that the records of the mediation conference would be as confidential as the conference itself. Therefore, I do not propose to accept the amendment.

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: Amendment No. 31 addresses the point raised in the Senator's amendment.

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: On Committee Stage, I said I was not attracted by the amendment and remained unconvinced of its necessity. If I were to accept the amendment it would mean that a party failing to attend a conference as directed by a court could escape the consequence if their failure was reasonable. This implies that the court in giving the direction to attend would be acting in a manner requiring them to do...

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: The situation remains the same. This is a matter on which I would like the Minister to have the capacity to initiate change and prescribe the period. If I simply left it to rules of court it would mean that unless the committee made a proposal to me, nothing could ever happen in these circumstances. On balance, I would prefer to have the right of initiative in this area. It does not mean that...

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: The amendment seeks to include the Child Abduction and Enforcement of Custody Orders Act 1991 among the list of relevant enactments coming within the terms of section 31(1) of the Bill. The term "relevant enactments" means those provisions for the hearing of family law matters other than in public. Section 1(2) of the 1991 Act provides that the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Acts 1961 to...

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: I regard the current state of the Bill to be slightly unsatisfactory in this area. As I indicated in the House previously, it was my plan to bring forward a revised proposal. Due to the time constraints on me, I have not been in a position to put my formulation into exact and proper terminology. I intend to move an amendment when the Bill comes before the Dáil. When it returns here, we will...

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: I prefer not to accept them as I do not regard them to be satisfactory. I must do a little more homework on the matter.

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: While I have not completed my homework, I will accept the amendments for the time being as a gesture. I may have to tidy them up later. While reporters from the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for Ireland are among the type of people I have in mind, I will not tie myself to the particular phraseology of the amendment in the last analysis.

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: I am grateful to the Senators for their remarks. This is an area where we must get the balance right. I said I was not disposed to accept these amendments because, well-intentioned as they are, they do not quite achieve the right balance. For instance, would it be desirable that members of the public could enter courtrooms where such proceedings were going on and listen merely out of...

Seanad: Civil Liability and Courts Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: I thank Senators for their thoughtful and committed contributions on the Bill, which it has been a pleasure to debate in the House. Some small improvement is still to be made to the Bill, but when I bring it back to the House in that improved state, it will mark a significant advance in the civil law of our society. In that context, much of the credit for making sure it is a good Bill falls...

Seanad: Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998: Motion. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: The motion before the House seeks approval for the continuance in force of those sections of the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 which would otherwise cease to be in operation on 30 June 2004. It is worth recalling the circumstances in which the 1998 Act was enacted. In August 1998, the Omagh bomb brutally snuffed out the lives of 29 innocent people and injured more than 200...

Seanad: Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998: Motion. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: I thank both Senators for their contributions. This House is well aware of the seriousness of the threat we face. I echo what Senator Mansergh and Senator Hayes said about the dissident republicans. They are seducing innocent and guileless individuals into a wholly warped and hopeless expression of something which itself is a caricature of what it pretends to be. As Senator Mansergh said,...

Seanad: Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998: Motion. (15 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: If anyone, in jail or out of jail, thinks I will re-ignite some new torch of Irish republicanism or freedom, he is very wrong indeed. If people think they can bully the Irish Government into backing down or treating them as anything other than what they are — a group of people in pursuit of the impossible through grotesque means — or that they can influence me through protests and so on,...

Written Answers — Crime Prevention: Crime Prevention (17 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: The Garda authorities have informed me that the Tallaght district comprises Tallaght and Rathfarham sub-districts. The detective unit is responsible for the investigation and detection of crimes in the district. In addition, the drugs unit is also responsible for the investigation of the supply of illicit drugs in the district. These resources are further supplemented by a divisional task...

Written Answers — Legal Aid Service: Legal Aid Service (17 Jun 2004)

Michael McDowell: As the Deputy is aware, the Legal Aid Board is examining the possible benefits of relocating some or all of its suburban law centres in Dublin to locations in the city centre to bring them closer to the courts. The Deputy will appreciate that in accordance with good public service management practice, the Legal Aid Board keeps the operation of its law centre network under constant review....