Results 14,701-14,720 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Dec 2016)

Michael McDowell: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (7 Dec 2016)

Michael McDowell: Whatever the origin of USC and whether it was an emergency matter, it has the effect, together with income tax, of forming the basis of the marginal rate of tax that many people face. Senator Kieran O'Donnell mentioned the self-employed, of whom I am one. I do not make a plea in respect of myself but I do so on behalf of many other people in the self-employed category. They face a number...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (7 Dec 2016)

Michael McDowell: I would be premature in my announcements.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (7 Dec 2016)

Michael McDowell: They were a help. God.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (7 Dec 2016)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister and I acknowledge what he has said in his annual transition statement. I note that he has arranged for a written version of this document to be lodged in the Library of the Oireachtas today. I must confess that I consider this transition statement to be somewhat complacent and will set out the reason I think it is complacent. In his opening statement, the Minister...

Seanad: Public Bodies Review Agency Bill 2016: Second Stage (7 Dec 2016)

Michael McDowell: I support the introduction of this legislation. At first blush, one might ask why we need a quango to supervise quangos. Senator Ó Céidigh is mindful of this potential criticism. However, I point out, in favour of what he said to the House, that we have a habit in this country of establishing bodies and allowing them to proceed. Some 15 or 20 years ago there was a...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Dec 2016)

Michael McDowell: I echo some of the sentiments which were just expressed by Senator Mark Daly on the housing crisis and the Government's response to it. It is relevant to the Order of Business to note that we can anticipate that legislation in this regard will come to the House from the other House in whatever shape or form in the coming few days. The problem with that is that a national debate is already...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Jan 2017)

Michael McDowell: What about the Minister, Deputy Varadkar?

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Jan 2017)

Michael McDowell: Do not forget the Minister, Deputy Varadkar.

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Jan 2017)

Michael McDowell: What about the Minister, Deputy Varadkar?

Seanad: Adoption (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage (24 Jan 2017)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House and acknowledge her sterling role in preserving it as part of the Democracy Matters campaign before she became a Minister. I thank her for being one of the leaders of the small group of people who stood up for the Seanad at the time. I was struck at the time by the fact that referenda generally can never be regarded as foregone conclusions. The...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Jan 2017)

Michael McDowell: I support Senator Victor Boyhan's comments on the importance of having the Minister for Justice and Equality called to the House to discuss the principle of making judicial appointments in the manner proposed by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross. It is a flagrant attack on the Constitution which gives the power to select judges to the Government which is...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Jan 2017)

Michael McDowell: I know and I will be saying.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Jan 2017)

Michael McDowell: I will at some stage.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Judicial Appointments (1 Feb 2017)

Michael McDowell: The Programme for a Partnership Government, we are told, contains the statement:We will reform the judicial appointments process to ensure it is transparent, fair and credible. We will reduce the number of suitable candidates proposed by the Judicial Appointments Commission for each vacancy to the lowest number advised as constitutionally and legally permissible by the Attorney General, but...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Judicial Appointments (1 Feb 2017)

Michael McDowell: While I thank the Minister of State for what he has said, I am increasingly alarmed by the Government's inability to admit that it has a constitutional right to appoint any person who is eligible to be a judge and that this right cannot be compromised by legislation. The words read by the Minister of State skirt around that issue. At least he has indicated some willingness on the part of...

Seanad: Order of Business (1 Feb 2017)

Michael McDowell: I have an entirely fresh topic. It is approximately five years since regulations were introduced by the then Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government banning the letting of what are commonly called bedsits. As a result, a huge number of tenants in bedsit accommodation found that it was no longer appropriate. It became a criminal offence for landlords to maintain those...

Seanad: Order of Business (1 Feb 2017)

Michael McDowell: You should leave him-----

Seanad: Order of Business (9 Feb 2017)

Michael McDowell: I raise proposed business in the House next week, namely, consideration of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, as amended in Dáil Éireann. The Bill was initiated and passed in the Seanad and subsequently amended in the Dáil. It will come back to the House next week. Under the Standing Orders of the Seanad, only amendments that have been made in Dáil Éireann...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2017)

Michael McDowell: I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that consideration of No. 1 be adjourned at 7 p.m.