Results 15,841-15,860 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: It is remarkable. I will remove the word "scandal" and go to the word "remarkable". It is remarkable that the staff the director will be in charge of will be civil servants under section 30(6) whereas the director will not, even though he or she will be appointed by the commission following a Public Appointments Service selection process. I have had no good reason advanced to me as to why...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: What superannuation would one get for five years' service?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Exactly.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: In the real world where we live, is the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform going to hand out a full pension to someone who has done five years? It is not. As such, what kind of pension will the person get? I find this unconvincing. I continue to ask the Minister and I continue to encounter a stone wall as to why there is a maximum term of ten years in this position.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: If that is the explanation that is forthcoming so be it. I find this section entirely unsatisfactory.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: If I may comment briefly on the section as I do not wish to waste time. This section is the third section in Part 5 of the Bill. I have set out at some considerable length, and I will not repeat myself now, my entire objection to the wasteful expenditure involved in the establishment of the judicial appointments commission and its office. Therefore, consistent with that position I am...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Legal Services Regulatory Authority and Property Registration Authority are institutions which are performing a useful function. We have a Judicial Appointments Advisory Board which costs practically nothing. The Minister's Government has been making excellent appointments to the Bench without the assistance of a commission of this kind. We do not need this commission and every cent...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I will assist Senator Norris.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Section 33 contains a number of separate proposals, one of which is to allow for the amendment of section 5 of the 1961 Act, which is either the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act, 1961 or the Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act, 1961, to provide that: "A judge of the District Court who has served as such a judge for a period of not less than 2 years shall be qualified for...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Exactly. A new section will be inserted stating: "A person who is for the time being a legal academic of not less than 12 years' standing shall be qualified for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Circuit Court or the District Court, but this is subject to subsections (2), (3) and (5)." It goes on to provide that a legal academic must have...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: The amendment proposes to "delete all words from and including “(1) Section 5” in line 6 down to and including line 17", which relates to a judge of the District Court, and to leave in subsection (8). This amendment, if accepted, would radically simplify the basis on which individual legal academics could be appointed to the superior courts. It would state:Section 45A...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I will not dismiss the District Court and say it would not be of much use there but I cannot imagine why somebody who has all of this experience as a legal academic would want to spend time dealing with cases such as people having no lights on their bicycles and no television licence. We have to ask what is going on in this section. It is one thing to say we should have some port of entry...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: When I reported progress, I had asked the Minister to set out some of the thinking in regard to Senator Bacik's amendment No. 72 and to set out his own attitude to that amendment.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: If the Minister is trying to introduce an irrelevant and slightly offensive tone to this debate, he started off on the right foot. He informed the House that I was probably involved in the campaign to prevent solicitors from becoming judges of the High Court, or else that I was too busy in the Law Library to participate in the debate while I was a barrister. If he checks the record,...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: No, a lawyer. I cannot imagine that a lawyer would seek appointment to the District Court Bench and, within two years, say he or she is in the wrong court and should be in the High Court. A person so philosophically and professionally confused about where his or her forte in law lay would need a great deal of counselling. If one applies to be a District Court judge, one is applying for a...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Humanities or something like that. Some other phrase is used now. The head of the law school is the dean but the dean is not the head of a faculty. In King's Inns, the dean is not the head of a faculty. I would have to check the rules. As far as I know in TCD, which is a major law school, it is a school.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: There is no faculty involved at all. I am bit mystified as to why we are using these terms without definition and why we are making special provision for people who have done that. I can well imagine the head of the law school in Trinity going on if they have faculties in Trinity – I presume they do-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Senator is not losing them.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Senator is not losing them yet.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: This legislation appears to have a governance picture of the law schools in Ireland which is not what happens on the ground. There is a dean of the law school in UCD, an immensely talented woman-----