Results 16,941-16,960 of 18,737 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: The content of the two amendments is not related. I wish to make an important point before we proceed.It is my earnest hope and intention that Committee Stage will be completed next week. I say that in case anybody is under any illusion.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: The amendment simply aims to make it clear that the reference to standards being observed by the commission would include informing applicants whether they had been selected by it for recommendation to the Government. That is for what it would provide.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: I will not push the matter any further.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 101:In page 35, line 19, after “shall” to insert “ensure it is compliant with section 7(1)and shall also”. This provision seeks to insert the words “ensure it is compliant with section 7(1)and shall also” after line 19 on page 35. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure the overriding requirement that appointments be made on...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: I should add that the purpose of the amendment is to ensure that when the procedures committee is drawing up criteria for inclusion in the statement, it would repeat and make it very clear that the overall principle was one of making appointments on merit and that the requirements in respect of gender equality and to reflect social diversity were secondary to this principle. I want the Bill...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 101a:In page 35, lines 38 and 39, to delete “recommendations made under section 56” and substitute “changes recommended under section 56(4)(a)”. Section 53(6)(d) states:In the preparation of the statement referred to in subsection (1)(b), the Procedures Committee shall, amongst other matters, have regard to ... (d) in the case of a statement...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: Section 56(4) provides that “The Procedures Committee shall, following a review under subsection (1), make a report to the Commission of its findings including any recommendations relating to the implementation of this Act ... but not limited to, recommendations relating to ... the published statement”. This is the procedures committee report only to the commission. It is not...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: I will explain why we tabled the amendment. If one looks at section 56, one will see that it requires the procedures committee to monitor and review implementation of the Bill. It states the review under subsection (1) shall be conducted two years after commencement of the section and thereafter from time to time as the commission so requests. One of the things on which the procedures...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: They are related. I accept that.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 102:In page 35, between lines 39 and 40, to insert the following:"(7) (a) Lay members of the Procedures Committee shall not take part in the preparation of a statement referred to in subsection (1)(b).(b) Lay members of the Procedures Committee shall not take part in the preparation of that part of the statement referred to in subsection (1)(a) which concerns— (i)...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: This is the Scottish amendment.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: With respect to the Minister, that is something of an exaggeration on his part. One of the functions of the procedures committee is a drafting function, the output of which will be sent to the commission in its entirety. It is not a question of anybody being excluded from making a decision on the matter in question. I am concerned with the question of who will draft matters to do with...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: The Minister's criticism might have some validity in respect of paragraph (a) of the proposed section 53(7). However, I do not see how it has much validity in regard to the proposed paragraph (b), which states:(b) Lay members of the Procedures Committee shall not take part in the preparation of that part of the statement referred to in subsection (1)(a) which concerns—(i) knowledge of...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: The Minister's analysis of my amendment ignores completely the provisions of section 54, which ensure that the commission itself, which is in the majority composed of lay persons, gets to approve or disapprove any statements which are developed under section 53, to modify them as it considers appropriate, to approve them as so modified, or to refuse to approve them. This means that the lay...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: It certainly does not debar anybody. The provision the Minister mentions about debarring laypeople from participating in decisions on appointments themselves is not an issue here. We are dealing with a sub-committee of the commission, which carries out the drafting of proposed statements, which in the last analysis, have to either be rejected, accepted or modified by the entire board. We...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: That is certainly not what is at play here. I want to make it clear that my concern in tabling this amendment is to ensure that those parts of the statements drafted by the procedures committee, which are entirely subject to review, amendment, rejection, modification or whatever by the entire commission, on which there is a lay majority, are drafted by people who know what they are talking about.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: Let us be clear about this. The religious zealotry the Bill exhibits in ensuring that, for instance, the chairman of the committee that does the drafting of the technical legal criteria may not be a lawyer is the exclusionary rule. If the Minister wants to look for apartheid in this Bill, it is remarkable that the procedures committee itself, which is a sub-committee of a majority lay body,...

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

Michael McDowell: I commiserate with Senator Terry Leyden on the fact that he was confused with a British MP by Guy Verhofstadt.That was a tragic accident and the sympathy of every member of this House goes out to the Senator on that account. How Mr. Verhofstadt could make such a mistake, I do not know. I wish to return to a point Senator Ó Donnghaile made earlier regarding a specific debate. Am I not...

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

Michael McDowell: The Leader probably is in a deaf spot today. The sound must be bad.

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

Michael McDowell: I will not go back over what Senator Leyden had to say.