Results 15,461-15,480 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I will listen to others and perhaps the Minister.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I thought he might have something to say but he does not.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I never said a word of that.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: It is not international best practice.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Is this provision in English or Welsh law?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: That is not international best practice.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Is there a requirement that nobody should-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Minister resorts to a facile and ridiculous defence of this proposition. He ascribes to me and Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell the sentiment that we are saying that a judge must be a chair. We have never said anything of the sort. If the Minister, who is a skilled lawyer and advocate, thinks he can get away with saying that we believe the sky will fall unless these bodies are chaired by...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: If we put into legislation that the chair must be a layperson and then go on to say that, in the absence of that lay chairperson, the group which meets in the absence of that person cannot select from among their number the person they think is best qualified to chair their meeting and must exclude anybody with any legal knowledge, whether as a judge or legal professional, that will be a...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I bring the Minister back to section 15(5) which states: "The quorum for a meeting of the Commission shall, unless the Minister otherwise directs, be 9 members, 5 of whom shall be lay members." Why should a meeting with 12 people in attendance cease to be capable of discharging its function because only four lay members turn up on a particular day?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Why should that happen? It is wrong that it should happen. If we were saying that lay people should be prohibited from turning up, that would be one thing but if, for whatever accidental reason or series of reasons, five people who are lay members cannot make a meeting, and that is five out of eight-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Excuse me. We will go back to this again.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: No. I ask the Minister to listen to me. There are eight lay members on this commission, as I see it-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: There are nine lay members and if, for whatever reason, only four of them can turn up, the Minister is saying the meeting is invalid. I am saying that is utterly unreasonable because at that stage-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: In those circumstances, 13 members of the commission could be sitting in a room. They could have nominated one of their members to be chairperson who will have a vote and a casting vote and, even then, they are told the meeting cannot proceed because lay members are insufficiently represented. Let us flip this coin over to its other side. Why is there not a minimum representation of legal...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: -----who are incapable of discharging certain functions and incapable of being counted simply as members of the commission to form a quorum. That amuses me. If the House were to provide that Senators from the agricultural panel would not be capable of chairing in the absence of the Chair, would not be counted for a quorum or something like that, the injustice of it would be clear to us. It...

Seanad: Traveller Culture and History in Education Bill 2018: Second Stage (Resumed) (11 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House. I also welcome the members of the Traveller community who have come to the House today to watch this important debate. Senator Kelleher asked me to support her legislation and I have indicated I will support it. Hardly a word has been spoken in this debate thus far with which I do not agree, but there are points I want to personally emphasise....

Seanad: Situation in Palestine: Statements (11 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: The group of which I am a member is a diverse one with different views. I fully respect the views just expressed by Senator Marshall. I also take into account what the Minister said today and what Senator Leyden has said on the issue. However, I have a different view. Since 1967 and the subsequent illegal occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and west Jerusalem and the annexation of Golan by...

Seanad: Situation in Palestine: Statements (11 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I stand by what the United Nations declared in Resolution 242 that this is not Israeli territory and that its annexation is therefore illegal and must end. It violates international law. If, like Senator Marshall, I took the view that things were progressing in the right direction and we were in the middle of a delicate peace process that could be destabilised by unilateral statements from...

Seanad: Situation in Palestine: Statements (11 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: -----and that message has to be a very simple one, that is, Israel must respect the rule of international law, go for the two-state solution-----