Results 16,081-16,100 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Minister thinks they will be told whether they were short-listed.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: Will he make that clear in a Report Stage amendment? Implicit in that is a whole load of problems. The short-list will fairly easily become generally known and the people who are on it and are overlooked will be easily identified if all the applicants are informed as to whether they were short-listed and all the successfully short-listed people are informed of the position also.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: Under Standing Order 73(3)(b) I propose that the vote be taken by other than electronic means.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 85a:In page 27, line 28, to delete ", including a person" and substitute the following: "(other that a person who holds judicial office as a member of the High Court, the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court) but including any other person".

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 85b:In page 28, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following:“(5) Nothing in this Act shall require any member of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, or the High Court to apply to the Commission for consideration for appointment to any other judicial office in any of those courts (including the offices of the Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal,...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I worry, perhaps more than the Minister but maybe as much as the Minister, about the consequences for the quality of our Judiciary of passing this legislation. I also happen to be someone who, like all citizens of this State, has to be loyal to the State and uphold the Constitution. I also happen to be a person who has been a member of the Executive and who has been Attorney General.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I have never heard the Minister or anyone else describe in clear terms why it is needed to keep the Government in ignorance of those members of the Judiciary who are not shortlisted. No coherent answer has ever been given to us as to why that should happen. In all the 60 hours we have been here, the Minister has never justified keeping the Government in ignorance and in the dark about which...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: He or she would commit a criminal offence if he or she told the Cabinet. Those are the Minister's words not mine.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: Who made that judgment?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I asked the Minister to answer a simple question. I asked him to explain the advantage and interest served by saying to the members of the Government that they should not know who among the present Judiciary in the superior courts is willing and able to serve. I have not had an answer from him on that. He has avoided that question in all his responses.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Minister is saying it is a policy issue but I am asking what advantage is served by keeping the Government in the dark about who is able and willing to serve among the present Judiciary. The corollary is the question as to the advantage of and permissible policy on keeping the Government ignorant of the choices available to it. I do not remember in any of the submissions of the Bar...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Minister talks about other common law jurisdictions. We have a written Constitution. It vests in the Executive the function of advising the President. That is superior to any Bill we can wave at each other in these Houses. It cannot be curtailed. As long as one is eligible, that is one thing. If a Bill had been introduced that went so far as to state determination by the commission...

Seanad: Conflict in Yemen: Motion (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I support the motion. I acknowledge it is put in very neutral and understated terms. What is happening in Yemen is wholly unacceptable. The fact the war there is being prosecuted largely by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, using arms supplied by the British and the American Governments in order to militarise those states, is itself a matter of huge horror to me. The United...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I join in the general expression of Christmas good wishes and thanks to the staff of the Seanad Office and to all of the staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service for the wonderful work they do for us in this establishment. On the Order of Business yesterday, Senator Colm Burke referred to a nameless Deputy - he was being very careful - who, in a committee session, queried the status and...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I remind that Deputy, who was criticising me on that occasion, that I received 5,661 first preferences and 15% of the vote in my constituency.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: If we are going to compare first preferences, all I want to say is that I look forward to the time when this House is reformed and many more of us will be in a position to dismiss remarks of that kind. On a more serious note, in respect of the person in question, there is a grinch associated with Christmas but it is not necessary to be a grinch the other 364 days of the year as well.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: To echo what Senator Leyden said, and to be serious about this, I am hearing a report today that a member of our Judiciary is being held at gunpoint by a dissatisfied litigant. The courts of our country hand down orders on foot of the Constitution. They apply the law very fairly. We uphold the State and we must uphold the Judiciary. Nobody can dine àla cartein respect of loyalty to...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: If possession orders are made, they are, invariably, executed with the greatest courtesy and understanding afforded to the people affected by them. Multiple appointments are made and letters delivered but, in the end, the law must be upheld and nobody, whether possessing a baseball bat or a gun or anything else, is entitled to take the law into his or her own hands. There is only one law...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Leader is being monitored in offices so he had better keep going.

Seanad: Government's Brexit Preparedness: Statements (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: No.