Results 14,361-14,380 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: No.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: No, that is not——

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The exact point I was making was that it does not have that implication. The proposed new section 2A(6), which states that nothing in section 2A, including subsection (1), "is to be construed as prejudicing the admission in proceedings under section 2 of other evidence of belief, or of evidence of opinion, whether tendered by any member of the Garda Síochána or other person", was included...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Sergeants, inspectors and superintendents, when it is relevant to them, give evidence in the average District Court if they believe the person before the court is a serious drug offender who will reoffend if released on bail. Their opinions are considered by the court in such circumstances as an acceptable expression of opinion. I thank the Deputy for raising these concerns because the...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: No, it does not. That is the point I was just making. If a chief superintendent togs out in court to give evidence in the form of his opinion on the matter, he will not be told that a sergeant has already given such evidence. He will not be asked why he is in court, or whether he is trying to browbeat the judge. It might be considered that this involves throwing more and more people in....

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I will return to the point I made a moment ago. If I were a judge——

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——I would wonder whether the local detective was trying to keep the guy before the court behind bars to teach him a good lesson for not making a voluntary statement, or something like that. I would wonder whether that was what was going on before me. In such circumstances, I would wonder there was a grudge match between two people with differing opinions about the facts of the relevant...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is what the proposed new section 2A(6) is there for.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I assure Deputy Howlin that it is a fundamental change. The original statement contained two elements. I accept there is a fundamental change in regard to the word "considered". I did not have to read about the phraseology in The Irish Times because I became worried about it when the Deputy first raised it.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: That was the Deputy's point. I was worried about the issue, so I thought about it, looked at the Constitution and said that it was to be considered by the court and not by anybody else. That is a significant change. The phrase "shall be evidence" was modelled on the Offences against the State Act, according to which a chief superintendent's opinion is evidence that a person is a member of...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 33: In page 11, to delete lines 7 to 10, and substitute the following: "refusal of the application is reasonably necessary to prevent the commission of a serious offence by that person, the statement is admissible as evidence that refusal of the application is reasonably necessary for that purpose.".

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I do not want to take up too much time on this point. The legal advice available to me is that it is unduly vague as to its meaning. To require the person to be of good behaviour in addition to not infringing the criminal law is, in the view of the legal advice available to me, going a step too far and is doubtful under ECHR terms.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I will elaborate the point a little more as I may have been too short in my explanation. I do not wish to sound like a telegram. It is a common usage in terms of suspended sentences that a person keep the peace and be of good behaviour. In a suspended sentence the court is saying it is letting a person out not simply on the basis that he or she does not commit a further criminal offence...

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is the case on suspended sentence.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Because I do not want the statute struck down.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: So was the 1935 Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy is correct. It will have to await the election of the next Government but who is in the Government is a completely different matter. I am watching the entire spectrum of opinion from Deputy Ó Snodaigh who is completely against it to Deputy Howlin who is probably against it but will go along with it for convenience sake to Deputy O'Keeffe who is strongly in favour of it.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am somewhere between Deputies Howlin and O'Keeffe.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is where I am. We have dealt with this ad nauseam and we should stop at this stage. Question, "That the words proposed to be deleted stand", put and declared carried.

Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am always in favour of codifying general law of this kind one way or the other. I am not sure I agree with every single detail in this amendment and I am not in a position to accept it today.