Results 16,461-16,480 of 18,737 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: The word "to" and also the commas.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: Yes.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: I am deeply disappointed by the almost knee-jerk reaction of the Minister to the amendment. What the Minister is proposing will massively load up the workload of the commission with repetitious applications. I was trying to put myself in the position of a person who had been recommended. If I had been recommended on a shortlist and subsequently read in Iris Oifigiúilthat Senator...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is the same court. I do not know how the Minister can argue that it is a different vacancy. It is essentially the same vacancy.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is the same vacancy in the sense that it is appointment to be a judge of the High Court. A vacancy has arisen and been filled and somebody who was short-listed and recommended the Government will be required to reapply when the next vacancy arises. Amendment No. 92 tabled by Senator Bacik was rejected and, as such, there is no particular order of recommendation. The Government will not...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is difficult to know exactly how the system works, but the Government makes the appointment and does not know why people are or are not on the shortlist or why people have been removed from the shortlist. It seems to me it would be far fairer if, in January or February Mr. A or Ms A has been recommended to the Government but then the Government gets a different shortlist in March or...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: No one says any of that about the appointments being made at the moment. Yet, the Minister is creating a highly complex system that will require people to submit and resubmit applications. It will even require people who have gone through the whole process and been winnowed down and told that they are among the top three applicants for a given position, only to be told two months later that...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: This is utterly wasteful and pointless. I have made the case about sitting judges, although the Minister will not accept it. Since all High Court judges are ex officiocapable of functioning on the Court of Appeal and in the Supreme Court as ordinary judges, they have already passed a threshold of suitability. This idea of requiring judges to submit applications at all is wholly wrong. If...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: There are going to be interviews too.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: The interview might go badly or better.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: All I will say in response is this. If the person stays recommended, it does not matter if there is a change of Government. The new Government will get a new or different shortlist, so no harm is done if a person is recommended.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: No. My point is that if every time there is a vacancy, there is a shortlist, which is what the Minister is insisting on, all my amendment is saying is that somebody who was previously, a short period before, recommended for the job stays recommended, and as there are three on the shortlist, there will be four or five people to look at, depending on who has been discarded. In any event, I...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 92b:In page 31, lines 28 and 29, to delete “or, in the case of section 44 the Government in accordance with the provisions of this Act”. Arising from what we have just voted on, it occurs to me to point out to the Minister that even if he sticks to the principle of what we have just been discussing this afternoon, there will still be occasions where it...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: There will be occasions where the Government will appoint a member of the High Court or Supreme Court and it will also have before it a vacancy regarding another appointment for the High Court. In those circumstances, the Minister should consider introducing some kind of system whereby the Government can make two appointments from the same shortlist. It seems pointless to have to start the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: I report progress.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: I want to raise two matters today. One is the publication, in the name of the Leader on 27 March 2019, of a Bill from the Department of Justice and Equality in respect of gaming and lotteries. The bottom line of this Bill is that the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956 is to be amended so as to take the right to decide whether to permit gaming casinos and amusement halls in their areas away from...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: Local authorities have few enough powers. One of them is to determine whether the people who live in the local authority area are to be subject to a rash of gaming machines appearing in that area. In addition, we do not need gaming machines. They add nothing to the sum total of happiness-----

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: -----or to anything else. They are permitted in amusement arcades in places like Bray, Bundoran and the like because they were seen to be part of a culture of holiday entertainment. That is the business of those local authorities, but it is scandalous that it will now be open season for gaming machines in Dublin city. The experience of the British, particularly in respect of fixed-odds...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: As the Senator has said, they are Semitic people as well. I want justice for these people. I do not want this international regime of bully boys from Brazil, Israel, America and Moscow to become legitimised because decent people do not speak out and houses of parliament in liberal democracies do not make their views known.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: On a point of order, I inform the Leader that I mistook the terms of his Bill. I confused it with a letter from a group of lobbyists and I was wrong. The Leader's Bill is much better than what has been proposed.