Results 14,641-14,660 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Minister of State for attending this debate and for his thoughtful input. I thank the Senators who contributed to the debate and to the Taoiseach who came to the House to speak on this, among other subjects. This Bill is not drafted by me but by the Manning committee. I did not spend many hours toiling through the-----

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: ----interstices of Seanad legislation. The Manning committee commissioned a former parliamentary draftsman, Dr. Brian Hunt, to do that. That is the Bill I am presenting. While it is nice to hear Members compliment me for all the hard work I put into it, and although I did assist the Manning committee on the broader issues, I cannot claim credit for the actual drafting of the Bill itself....

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: I wish to advert to the contribution of Senator Norris. The amendment in 1979 was passed by 92% of people. They did not stipulate that there must be a single constituency, as provided for in this Bill and as proposed by the Government. They said we could divide up the seats differently. Senator Norris might be interested to know that it is perfectly legitimate under the Constitution to...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: It is a little strange.

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: That is fair enough.

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: Give me a little more time. We could have been here until 3 p.m.

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: I will say one thing about the franchise. It is not suggested that there would be online voting. It is suggested that part of the process be changed. As Senator Norris will appreciate, the process is rather cumbersome at the moment for the universities. Registered letters go out and get left in post offices. Then people have to go chasing the registered letters. That procedure could be...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: That is true.

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: We have this in common: both of us achieved a first preference vote in the recent election that was more than a number of Deputies in Dáil Éireann got, and they are Members of Dáil Éireann.

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: I will try to make that point somewhat differently. The NUI register has 113,000 people on it. The figure is extraordinary. Of them, between 35,000 and 40,000 actually vote. The rest are lost somewhere in the diaspora. The point is that it is entirely possible to afford people a postal vote and to have a postal system without extensive electoral fraud. I do not believe there was ever...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: Who knows what their views on many issues will be? God only knows what they would be on the eighth amendment and so on. In any event, I am simply making the point. I think a number of people in the House have it in the back of their minds that Sinn Féin will somehow undertake a vast vote-rigging operation in places on this planet where no one can see what is happening. That is not...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: Next Tuesday or Wednesday, by agreement with the Whips.

Seanad: Rent Certainty (No. 2) Bill 2016: Second Stage (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: I want to say a few things about the principle behind this Bill. I think it is mistaken, although well-intentioned. I do not want to engage in using over-the-top language about it but it suffers from a number of flaws.One has to consider the dynamics of a society and the provision of housing in this country. Would the introduction of this Bill bring us to a stage where more money was...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments and Threatened Industrial Action by An Garda Síochána: Statements (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: I am sharing with Senator Boyhan. We will take four minutes each.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments and Threatened Industrial Action by An Garda Síochána: Statements (12 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald. I thank her for coming in response to a suggestion I made that this debate should happen and I thank the Leader of the House for arranging for it. The particular issue I was concerned about was the question of judicial appointments in view of media reports that a moratorium on the appointment of judges had been put in place...

Seanad: Judicial Council: Motion (19 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: I second the motion. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, to the House. I concur fully with and support completely what has been said by Senator Boyhan. By way of background, I was appointed Attorney General in 1999. I succeeded David Byrne as a member of a Committee on Judicial Conduct and Ethics which had been established, as Senator Boyhan said, in the wake of the Sheedy...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: The House will be aware that the Seanad Bill has now passed Second Stage and is awaiting debate on Committee Stage. Obviously, it is a matter for the groups to determine when Committee Stage hearings should commence. It occurs to me that perhaps we need a little more clarification from the Government, in particular, before we embark on that process. I am addressing my point to the Leader,...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: The interesting point is that, with the exception of myself, all the people mentioned as being proposers of this Bill were elected to the House by county councillors.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: The letter in which they were so categorised and loaded into the same group as myself was addressed to every county councillor in the country, as far as I can see. This raises the question of why it would be that anyone would so misrepresent the proposals of the Bill in such a way as to somehow excite opposition against them among their electorate. That raises a further question.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Oct 2016)

Michael McDowell: Which Member would be so inexperienced as to make a mistake of that kind?