Results 17,161-17,180 of 18,737 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: It is. He made the point that it was cronyism-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: -----that the Chief Justice attended the wedding of other judge's children.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: That is the point I am making.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: It is part of this unspoken accusation of cronyism that has been articulated both in leaflets distributed in Dublin Rathdown, which I have drawn the Minister for Justice and Equality's attention to, that somehow there is some inside group of people making these decisions and that the Government is not getting the best talent available. I ask him to consider long and hard whether all the...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: May I reply to Senator Conway?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: While I understand the Minister does not want to contribute further on amendment No. 6-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: I respect his right not to do so in the circumstances. That is not a problem. I am grateful to Senator Conway for asking me to consider planning to become a judge.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: It echoes the Minister's invitation last week when he asked me to stand in Dublin Bay South.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: Obviously, members of the Fine Gael Party want me anywhere but here. I take that as a compliment and am pleased to do so. The selection of someone to chair a body of the kind we are discussing is either left to the body or it is an ex officioappointment, but this is not an ex officioappointment. Rather, it is an appointment based on the proposition that there is one type of person who...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: Is there any reason in common sense that should be done? The answer is "No". I note that the Minister chose not to respond to any of the arguments I made about the quality of the appointments he has made or about the disinhibiting effect the amendment will have on decent people making applications. He simply stated he did not wish to answer those points. He has a right to silence and not...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: She stood up and stated she personally believed it was a bad idea-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: -----but she was forced by her party whip to do what she had been told to do.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: On the quarantine period of three years Senator Craughwell mentioned, if the Government wanted, for some crazy reason, to exclude people from being chair of the commission, three or five years would surely be enough. If the person had gone from being a lawyer to being-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: -----joining an insurance company or becoming chairman of a bank, or another such change that has happened in the past, a period of ten years is surely not necessary to get rid of the camaraderie or whatever of the Law Society or the Law Library, which is supposed to be so terrible. The prohibition on the chairperson being a lay person means, according to the legislation, that someone who...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: Let us be clear: the appointments could not have happened if this stupid Bill had been passed into law. The Government would have had to advertise every one of the appointments, and each of the sitting judges who have just been promoted to other positions would have had to reapply to the commission.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: I was not aware, but I am delighted to hear about it.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: Senator Conway might dwell upon the fact that the appointment to which he referred could not have been made if this Bill were in place because it would have required its being advertised by the Government. That makes a nonsense of what we are being told is the purpose of the Bill.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: Hold on a second.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: No, it is not agreed.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)
Michael McDowell: Amendment No. 7 proposes an entirely new subparagraph (d) in the definition at section 2(1). This has never been discussed before. It proposes to exclude people who have served as, for example, a barrister or judge in Northern Ireland-----