Results 13,621-13,640 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——or Ministers of the Government are given this monopoly. Whether this is right or wrong is a constitutional matter and I believe there are good reasons for it. Standing Orders of this House provide that amendments which would have the effect of impinging on the Government's function in this matter are not in order. I will look at all the Deputy's amendments to see if there is any...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am very sympathetic to the spirit of both of these amendments. I indicated that previously and I am not just saying so now. It is my view that if somebody is the subject of a conviction by reason of a miscarriage of justice, we should supply remedies for him or her. Likewise, it is my strong view that if somebody secured an acquittal by certain forms of miscarriage of justice,...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I have. From where does Deputy Howlin think the Hogan report and all the consideration therein came? It came from the actions that I took to put this matter on the agenda and the other matters that are there.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Irish people should have an opportunity to consider the Hogan report in its entirety.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: This will be the subject matter of debate in the context of the forthcoming general election. The negative views, for instance, that the Green Party and Sinn Féin have to much of this material should be played out in public. Groups like the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, and perhaps the Irish Human Rights Commission may well have difficulties with the Hogan report, even though...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I appreciate that Deputy Howlin proposed it and I indicated that I agreed with it at the time.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: The pair of us having a conversation in a committee room does not of itself constitute a national debate. The point we must bear in mind is that if I were to accede to all of the amendments that have been tabled for the implementation of the Hogan report, I would be doing precisely what all of these bodies have been saying to me I should not do, that is, take radical steps in the course of...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: We will deal with that at a later stage. The distinction I draw is that we made such a provision in 1998, as well as a provision on drug trafficking offences, whereas since 1994 it has been the general law in the United Kingdom that a jury can draw an inference from a failure to mention a fact. That has been in operation for the past 12 years. I am confronted by the immediate problem that...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am grateful to those barristers who wrote to me but, as far as I am concerned, they got it wrong with regard to the right to silence and other issues. They got it right in that successive burglaries should not trigger three quarter sentences and I intend to deal with that issue.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am not making a Second Stage speech. Deputy Howlin raised a question on barristers and I am simply saying that the view is held by a small minority of barristers who had sought a general signature to their proposition. The great majority of barristers may not share their views on the right to silence. I imagine the majority of barristers share the general view that the right to silence...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am not frightened that it would attract controversy but I have been publicly criticised for not providing sufficient time on a scheme of a Bill, which I published in February, by many people who have stated I should allow more time before I proceed on that basis. Now I am being told to put the entire Hogan report into law.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is what I am being asked to do.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I want to consider the Hogan report at greater length for good reason. Some aspects of the report, for instance, regarding inferences arising from the failure to mention facts, are too weak. Another aspect of the report does not go far enough. I believe in every jury trial a statement should be made by the defence as part of the process to start the trial.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: I appreciate that but I will not simply take some bits of the Hogan rebalancing package and leave others aside without giving a chance to anybody to even publish the scheme of a Bill. The scheme attaching to the Hogan report has been published——

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is for the Chair to rule on that.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: To accept the scheme of the Bill, helpfully prepared at the back of the Hogan report, and to run with it now would be to do precisely what I am being criticised for, that is, not giving anybody time to consider other implications.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Hogan group would not have expected me to run the scheme of its Bill through in rapid order. I am, therefore, not being inconsistent. I said last December that I would put a package before the House in the new year. I then published the scheme of a Bill in February and I published the Bill in March.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: Yes and we are debating the matters that were canvassed in public. During this process, I returned from the US and received the Hogan report on my desk.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: Exactly. I did not undertake in public nor did I imply that I would immediately enact the report into law, even if I agreed with some of its provisions. I will not go down that road. Deputies Jim O'Keeffe and Howlin cannot have it both ways. They cannot run with the Law Society on the one hand and say all these provisions are very major and require a good deal of thought——

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——and then say eight days after I receive a report, "Please enact into law".