Results 1,681-1,700 of 9,252 for speaker:Jim O'Callaghan

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 130:In page 30, line 18, to delete “relevant committee” and substitute “Commission”.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 131:In page 30, line 32, to delete “relevant committee has received from the Commision” and substitute “Commission has received”.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 132:In page 30, line 36, to delete “relevant committee” and substitute “Commission”.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I support this amendment. I think we need to recall that sections 42, 48 and 50 are the most important parts of the legislation. We have spent hours talking about, and there is a large number of sections on, the make up and functions of the commission. Ultimately, what we need to recognise is that the reason we are setting up the commission is so that it can make a recommendation to...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: It is important that we recall the purpose of the legislation we are discussing and the reason there have been calls for reform. The reason is people want to ensure the public interest is served by having people appointed to the Bench solely based on merit. This has not always happened. Sometimes people are appointed not on the basis of merit, but because of political or personal...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: They would not be seeking to introduce window dressing by way of statute that gives the impression that there will be reform. It is right that a Government should nominate judges for appointment. At least a Government may be thrown out of office. I would be very concerned about giving the full power of appointment to a judicial appointments commission appointed by the great and the good...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 135:In page 31, line 8, to delete “relevant committee has received from the Commission” and substitute “Commission has received”.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 136:In page 31, line 12, to delete “relevant committee” and substitute “Commission”.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 138:In page 31, line 18, to delete “relevant committee” and substitute “Commission”.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I do not need it.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: There is a slight difference between the old regime and what is proposed under the new regime. Under the old regime, there would be occasion when the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board would not make a recommendation of names to Government because it could not recommend sitting judges. For example, let us suppose there was a vacancy on the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal and the...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 144:In page 32, line 1, to delete "relevant committee" and substitute "Commission".

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 145:In page 32, line 5, to delete "relevant committee" and substitute "Commission".

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 146:In page 32, lines 6 to 10, to delete all words from and including "Minister", where it secondly occurs, in line 6 down to and including line 10 and substitute "Minister particulars of the person’s education, professional, qualifications, experience and character.".

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: There is a requirement not in the Bill or this amendment. A person should not be appointed as Chief Justice, President of the Court of Appeal or President of the High Court unless the person is a judge. If a barrister can be made Chief Justice or a solicitor can be made President of the Court of Appeal, it would be like a person who has never been a teacher becoming a principal of a school....

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Deployment (8 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: The message we want to get across to the Minister of State this evening is that the Government needs to wake up to the fact that crime in Dublin is a serious and growing problem. We have known for many years, unfortunately, that we have a problem in Dublin in respect of gangland crime. That is being dealt with by An Garda Síochána as best it can, provided it is given the...

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Deployment (8 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to answer the questions put down by the four of us, but he has been given a very hard task by his senior Minister. The person who should be responding to these issues is the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan.

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Deployment (8 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: I suspect the reason he is not here is his great discomfort about what the statistics reveal for Portlaoise. The Minister of State said the reason for the decline in Garda numbers was the economic crash to which Fine Gael refers three times a day. However, that does not explain the decline in Garda numbers in Dublin between 2016 and 2017. What was the Fine Gael slogan during the last election?

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Deployment (8 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: The recovery was ongoing in 2016, which does not explain why there was a decline. The credit for adding 800 gardaí each year goes to Fianna Fáil because of what we achieved in the confidence and supply agreement.

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Deployment (8 Feb 2018)

Jim O'Callaghan: One need only look at the Fine Gael manifesto from before the last election. It included no commitment to bring Garda numbers up to 15,000. I refer finally to the assertion that the distribution of gardaí is a matter exclusively for the Garda Commissioner. If that is so, there are some very odd things to be explained when we look at the figures on increases for Portlaoise and what is...