Results 13,981-14,000 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Garda Deployment. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The 331 officers to whom I referred are the ones on whom we should concentrate, as opposed to those in the centralised unit. The same arguments made by Deputy Cuffe for localising resources apply to CAB. At the end of December 2002, there were 50 people in the national drugs unit and in 2003 there were 52. In 2004 the unit had 49 members, in 2005 it had 55 and in 2006 there were 48.

Garda Deployment. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is correct. It has not changed by more than a handful over that period. However, the strength of drug units nationally has expanded substantially in the same period. I agree with Deputy Howlin that drugs are a very serious issue but drugs units are not the only component of the battle against gang land. Detective units carrying out surveillance and other operations and the armed...

Garda Deployment. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Nanograms are very small.

Garda Deployment. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Competitive interviews were carried out recently so appointments will follow very rapidly. I cannot give a date as I do not micromanage the Garda Síochána.

Anti-Social Behaviour. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: While obviously it is difficult to predict in advance the extent to which ASBOs will be resorted to, there is absolutely no question of a lack of resources inhibiting the effective operation of ASBOs. I directed the commencement of Part 11 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006, which provides for civil proceedings for anti-social behaviour by adults, on 1 January 2007. The application by the...

Anti-Social Behaviour. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy has a somewhat mathematical approach to the matter. I cannot say in advance, nor can anybody make an intelligent guess as to the level of resources that would be applied unless we came to a conclusion on how many such orders would be issued. If I were asked in December how many orders would be issued by the start of April, I could not have predicted whether it would have been 21...

Anti-Social Behaviour. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is the point. Therefore she is asking whether a mathematical exercise was carried out to determine the amount of resources necessary to make them effective. The answer is that it was not. We do not live in a command economy where somebody can sit in a room and predict on the basis of 1,000 ASBOs by December so many additional Garda resources would be necessary. The real world does...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: When the debate adjourned earlier, we were discussing a register of sentences. A number of options are open to us on the broader question of sentencing guidelines. In continental Europe under the civil law system, which is somewhat more structured than our system, minimum and maximum sentences are provided for. In general under the common law system, it is for the Judiciary to decide...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——it is a fact that judges deal with a huge volume of cases. We generally do not allow juries to determine penalties. If one is faced with a murderer on one day and on succeeding days with a rapist, a burglar, an assaulter, a white collar thief, a child abuser and somebody in court on a child pornography charge, it allows one to see the broad mass of humanity and to see crimes in a more...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The point can also be made that judges get tired and worn out with the volume of crime with which they must deal and that they lose the freshness of anger and dissatisfaction that people facing the issue for the first time would have. The truth lies between the two positions. That is the reason I do not believe we should have a system of selection of penalties by juries or that we should...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Pleading guilty to being perfect — I thought I did that.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am a child of the 1960s.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Was he in the FCA?

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I do not want to delay this, but I would like to respond to Deputy O'Keeffe. The Courts Service is a unique body. It is mainly run by the Judiciary and it is independent of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. It is responsible for servicing the courts system, for getting the databases together, for producing annual reports and for collating statistics. That is its function.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I think the service has its own Accounting Officer, but the Department provides it with a block Vote every year.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: There is an Estimates process. They come to me and they get a block Vote. The chief executive of the Courts Service is the Accounting Officer. In case people think that the Executive still runs everything, gets all the information and leaves it on a shelf, I would like to say that this is not so. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform does not do that anymore. That is all...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I accept that. I was just making the point that the Judiciary is not acting as a group of amateurs when running a data project of its own. That is its function. One of the key functions of the Courts Service is to inform the Judiciary on what is going on. The old-fashioned notion that the Department does everything and the judges are helpless does not exist anymore.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Yes. Nothing is holding them back. One of the functions of the Courts Service would be to assist the Judiciary in this matter.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Denham committee is not some notion that occurred among judges in St. Stephen's Green one afternoon. They run all of these things and are quasi autonomous in this area. They collectively decide whether to sponsor Dr. Coulter's report and so on. They do not come to me looking for money for these things. Before the DPP was given a right of appeal against unduly lenient sentences, there...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Like the Deputy, I do not believe that a prosecutor should demand 18 years or something like that. If the Courts Service developed a corpus of data, it should be open to a prosecutor to draw to the attention of a judge precedents from the Court of Criminal Appeal, as well as the general pattern of sentencing in an area. It should be reasonable to put those points before a judge.