Results 1,321-1,340 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: And the Oireachtas.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: Down in the disco.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: It is happening all over. Off-licence sales are making inroads as are supermarkets.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: In response to the Leader's last point I intend to introduce the codification Bill in Seanad Éireann as soon as it is drafted, which is important. There were and are different views about the 9 o'clock threshold. In case people get carried away with how right they were in the past, which we all have a tendency to do, when I moved the time from 8 o'clock to 9 o'clock, some Senators, including...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: I am a liberal by disposition and people should control their behaviour better. Had I said that I would have been screamed out of public existence for taking a blasé attitude to serious situations. There is a balance to be achieved in this. In saying that evidence of age was required for young drinkers we went as far as we could down the road to control under-age drinking. In the Dáil, for...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Second Stage (Resumed). (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: Well I know he had a problem with the ban on smoking in public places. People have a great capacity to claim they were right all along but what they were saying all along was quite different. I welcome the general support for the Bill. The question of whether the 10 p.m. rule should apply for all or part of the year can be considered again in the context of the overall consolidating...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: If it is any consolation to the Senator, similar amendments were ruled out of order in the Dáil.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: In this Bill, it was my intention to afford a defence to a person who had in the past run an event, for example, a disco or an Irish dancing class, in premises containing a bar with closed shutters. In the Dáil, Deputies English and Costello claimed I was taking a very narrow view of the idea of closing a bar. They said that if I really wanted to encourage bar and club owners in future to...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: ——or water to children across the bar and can show there is no question of alcohol being in a position to be consumed on the premises — in other words that access to it is securely prevented — an offence is not committed. A distinction is drawn between section 1(5) and what is referred to in the preceding four subsections. This is based on the very simple proposition that the Attorney...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: I remember a story the Tánaiste told me. During campaigning in the Dublin West by-election, won by Deputy Brian Lenihan, she was outside a supermarket. A lady wearing one of Senator Quinn's fur coats approached her pushing a trolley and berated her over the possibility of the introduction of water charges. It may have been implied that such charges were not completely off the agenda at the...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: Attitudes to drink can change significantly. Pubs were once allowed to open at ungodly hours of the morning because it was considered important that dockers and fruit market workers were entitled to a pint when they finished work. I do not know whether that is still the case.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: A funny exception was made. One could probably go from a night-club to a dockers' pub without having to suffer much deprivation.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: Some barristers in days gone by who were unduly fond of drink used to go to dockers' pubs on their way into work to fortify themselves. We spoke earlier about wine. When a barrister friend of mine who went into a pub in Valentia or Portmagee was asked by the landlady what he wanted, he asked for a glass of wine. There was a perplexed look on the landlady's face as she asked if he wanted...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: We are changing as a society.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: I am glad the Senator has offered me the amendment in that spirit, but I reject it in the same spirit. The term "amendment" includes changes by substitution or insertion.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: If I was to agree on this occasion to include a reference to "substituted or inserted" as an embellishment to the term "amended", I would have to do it on every occasion, on principle, and legislation would become longer rather than shorter.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: I agree.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: I assure the House that I will submit the scheme to the joint committee. If this or the other House wants to examine it in advance, I will not oppose such a debate, depending on the House's time constraints. I do not want to make it too complicated, however. I do not want to provide for two bites of the cherry because that would mean I would be here for the rest of my life.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: I enjoy being here.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (13 Oct 2004)

Michael McDowell: One person hinted at it.