Results 16,141-16,160 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: Which section is the Senator discussing?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: Does Senator Bacik want to say something?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: While I appreciate Senator Bacik's commitment to fairness and justice for women and gender justice, I do not agree with her amendments. I will explain why. Section 7(1) states: "A decision to recommend, under this Act, a person for appointment to judicial office shall be based on merit." Section 7(2) states:Subject to subsection (1), where the function, under this Act, of selecting and...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: -----but the section 7 approach is based on merit, and in making merit-based decisions, there is a desideratum that there should be a balance between men and women in the Judiciary. However, in this section Senator Bacik is saying that even if the commission comes to the conclusion that three persons of one gender are the best people, it must slam on the brakes, delete one of them and add a...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: She would be horrified if that were to happen. I indicated to the Minister, in the context of the reprehensible remarks made by Senator Ross about the judicial appointments that have been made by this Government since he became a member of it-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: He did. He said this Bill is the only way to stop, as he said, and I will have to check it again-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I would hate to misquote him. He said that by delaying the Bill, we are perpetuating political patronage and political favours.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: Either they have stopped or they have not. If political patronage and political favour giving are taking place at present-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I know, and so do I.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: However, there is the minor problem that in the Government there is a person who was party to Government decisions to make the 36 appointments to which I referred who says that the only way to stop patronage and favour giving is to alter the way in which those people have been selected. We will not return to that again, but these are disgraceful remarks. He is either a member of a...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I have been emphasising that from the very beginning. I am the person who supports the present system, which is working and which the Government is operating perfectly well. The Minister is the person who is trying to politicise the appointment of judges by handing the entire function over to a group of lay people. That is what is happening here. We should remember that it was the...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: Through the Chair, I ask the Minister not to suggest that I favour political patronage or have ever acted that way. I ask him to check the record when I had anything to do with judicial appointments and he will find that far from exercising political patronage-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: -----the Governments in which I operated as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and advised as Attorney General were singularly politically blind in their appointments.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I am pleased to hear that.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: The point I was trying to make-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I did not. I introduced the fact that there had been a list of 36 appointments.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I wish to say for Senator Bacik's interest that when I did my tot of the 36 appointments, 16 were women, which is quite a lot. It is not 18-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: -----but it is as close as makes practically no difference. This Government has been exemplary in its approach to gender issues concerning judicial appointments without any assistance from the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill. One does not need all of this stuff to make good appointments and to appoint good women to the Judiciary. We will go back then to what Senator Bacik is...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: The members of the Government are not idiots. If a shortlist of recommendations is made of candidates from one to three-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I am saying it is unnecessary.