Results 16,661-16,680 of 18,737 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is hard to imagine how the commission would evaluate honesty. The point I want to make, and it is at a more serious level than those observations, is that experience that might be very relevant to whether somebody was appointed, say, as a judge of the Circuit Court, is, for instance, service as a member of the Residential Tenancies Board, the Employment Appeals Tribunal or in the asylum...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: Section 35(3) deals with the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal or the High Court, and most family law, for example, is not dealt with in those courts or at that level. Indeed, most criminal law is not dealt with in those courts or at that level. Section 35(3) is confined to the superior courts. In section 50 we are dealing with, I hope, a period in time in which specialist family courts...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 97b:In page 33, line 14, after "requisite" to insert "experience,".

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 97c:In page 33, line 15, after "requisite" to insert "experience,".

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House. As the previous speaker said and as the Minister has acknowledged, this Bill is dealing with a crisis. There is a shortage of living accommodation in Ireland and the result of this has been monstrous increases in rent in some parts of the country. That is a fairly obvious consequence of the lack of housebuilding, homebuilding, and apartment building we...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: That is good. It is fine if the Government is doing that but it is wrong if that is being used to increase the take. Perhaps I am missing something in section 38, which states, "The use of a house or part of a house situated in a rent pressure zone for short term letting purposes is a material change in use of the house or part thereof, as the case may be." The definition of short-term...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: How does it not affect them?

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: Is it?

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: Does it not apply to a primary residence?

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: I see. Fair enough. The most important thing in the Bill, and I support this strongly, is the introduction of administrative sanctions and penalties but they must cut both ways. If a landlord is behaving appallingly, there should be sanctions against that landlord. If a tenant is behaving appallingly, there should be some form of fairly quick sanction. I received an email to my office...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: I second Senator Craughwell's proposed amendment to the Order of Business. The Bill that was debated on Second Stage last night is full of implications for the future of the private rented sector in terms of people who cannot afford to purchase homes for themselves. We cannot delude ourselves but that many of the measures in the Bill are going to reduce further the amount of rental...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: Anybody who thinks it would be a feather in the Government’s cap to rush through the Bill should look around a few corners. The situation is serious. We are going to make the homelessness crisis in Dublin worse with this legislation. We are not thinking through the implications of what we are doing. Following on from what Senator Hopkins said, we must do something about insurance....

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: The Bill is-----

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: Nobody seems to speak for County Carlow in this Chamber. Carlow came first in the divorce league, as reported in today's newspapers, and there is not a word about it from Senator Murnane O'Connor.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: I just wanted to note that achievement. Somebody has been careless enough to lose my seat on three occasions in the Lower House. I was struck by an account in today's edition of the Irish Independentregarding a Member of that House who lost her seat while on a swing in a hotel in Harcourt Street recently.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: I just want to say two things without commenting on the merits of the case. It would appear that 55 years after Belfast City Council unlocked the swings on Sundays, the proposition is being put in court that there should be supervisors for swings when adults are using them and that it is a matter of civil liability if there are not. It occurs to me that we live in a strange world when civil...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: That is a legitimate point to make and I do not believe there is anything disgusting or disgraceful about making it. This is not a simple issue. There is a big problem with criminalising the possession of small quantities of cannabis; it is probably a waste of everyone's time prosecuting people for it. However, decriminalising cannabis will have serious effects because it is a psychotic...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is the swing vote I am worried about.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: I support Senator Craughwell on the point he raised. The Irish soldiers at Jadotville were treated very shabbily and victims of a type of conspiracy to defame and belittle them and make them feel like cowards when they were precisely the opposite. Ireland must collectively make amends to those who remain and the memory of those who have passed on. Following on from Senator Mullen's point...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (22 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: Like Senator Reilly, I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, in bringing forward this amendment. This achieves, in a pragmatic but principled way, an objective which many Members of this House support which is that the Department of Education and Skills should on the one hand fulfil its function of defending the status of university in Ireland internationally and...