Results 14,041-14,060 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

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

Michael McDowell: Yes, and huge protection had to be provided. We have, in principle and in respect of drug trafficking and the Offences Against the State Act——

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

Michael McDowell: I am not sure, I will check it. The 1984 Act provided for the arresting garda. We now have a different situation. First, videotapes are made of these interviews and, second, there is a different understanding of the right to silence. The right to silence, as I understand it, is a right not to be forced to incriminate oneself. It is categorically different from circumstances where if one...

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

Michael McDowell: Yes. This is not a general proposition that a jury can look at an accused person being interrogated and staring at the wall and decide that if the person was innocent, he or she would say something. It cannot decide on that basis to convict. The person must be asked about a proposition which he is advancing in his defence. That is the difference. An inference can be drawn from his...

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

Michael McDowell: I do not want to go on at too much length.

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

Michael McDowell: I believe very strongly in this proposal and that it is reasonable. I will not go into the matter any further. I have listened with an open mind to much of the criticism that has been directed at it. Much of this criticism is conservatism, which defies common sense. It is simply a desire to leave everything as it is and a belief that everything is perfect as it is when this is not the...

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

Michael McDowell: I am covering that point in amendment No. 102.

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

Michael McDowell: A new form of caution.

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

Michael McDowell: The Deputy has one as well.

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

Michael McDowell: That is the point.

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

Michael McDowell: In respect of the views that have been expressed by people outside the House, they are entitled to those views. However, I find it very surprising that in all their letters to the newspapers and speeches on television, none of them pointed out that this has been the law in Great Britain since 1994 and in Northern Ireland since 1988. They made me look like some wild experimenter who was...

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

Michael McDowell: The funny thing is that one would not have gathered any of that from the comments to which I have been subjected over the past week.

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

Michael McDowell: Let us get on with it then.

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

Michael McDowell: I do not support it either.

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

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 102: In page 30, after line 47, to insert the following: "31.—(1) The Minister may make regulations providing for the administration of cautions by members of the Garda Síochána to persons in relation to offences. (2) The regulations may include provision for— (a) the form of caution to be administered to a person— (i) at any time before the person is charged with...

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

Michael McDowell: Deputy Howlin also deals with the liability of a garda and I will await his comments before making my comment on it.

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

Michael McDowell: I have no problem with that.

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

Michael McDowell: I do not want to get into a protracted debate on mandatory sentences for drug offences. I am strongly of the view that there should be a general tariff of ten years for serious drug trafficking offences. As I said at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors conference, I strongly believe that a sentence of seven and half years, taking account of standard remission, should be the...

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

Michael McDowell: Yes.

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

Michael McDowell: On the figure of €500,000, the Attorney General has advised me that is a permissible proportionate barrier over which we could say the discretion cannot apply. I have approached it on that basis.

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

Michael McDowell: I have approached it on that basis but I am mindful of the point Deputy Howlin has made, that is, that it may create a two-tier approach in sentencing and it may send out a signal that if drugs are not valued at more than €500,000, one is not in the big league.