Results 17,521-17,540 of 18,737 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Second Stage (8 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I agree completely with what Senator Buttimer has just said about FDI and Taiwan. In today's papers, I noticed that the Taiwanese foreign minister has asked for free countries across the world to show solidarity with them, which is so sad, because I visited the country recently and I saw a free democracy working perfectly. The minister said that there was an imminent threat of invasion from...

Seanad: Deportation Moratorium (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Second Stage (9 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House. I listened carefully to her and find myself in agreement with everything she said. Having been in her position for five years between 2002 and 2007, I understand completely the significant difference, as Senator Ward said, between what is available as a statutory power and the discretion as to whether it is used in any particular circumstance. I am sure...

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Second Stage (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This Bill raises some issues which might be surprising in one respect. The new facility in Portrane is almost finished or will be ready for commissioning very soon. It would be nonsense, therefore, not to provide for the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital to the site. I fully appreciate that point but I will make a couple of points....

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, line 18, to delete “shall be construed in accordance with section 4” and substitute “means 30 April 2021, or such other date as the Minister may fix by order”.

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I was speaking about the general background to the particular situation we find ourselves in now. This amendment and the other amendments in my name and the name of Senator Boyhan are to try to put firm dates on the process of transfer. I want to expand the point. The Minister of State recently visited Dundrum. She did not see the interior of the old building for various reasons. I went...

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I will not press the amendment. As the Minister of State can appreciate, the reason Senator Boyhan and I put down the amendment was so there could be a more discursive debate on the subject than would have happened if we simply had a Second Stage debate, which would have petered out after short contributions. In that context, I thank the Leader of the House for agreeing to an extension of...

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I infamously said that. That was false optimism on my part. We have to have places for serious criminals for whom preventative detention is important, such as gangland figures.We have already increased the remission for good behaviour from one quarter to one third, and all of this has been done by regulation, etc., but we should not be under any illusion that we will be able to reduce...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the fact that overnight that the four statues at the Shelbourne Hotel reappeared a few months after they were first mentioned in this House. There are two substantial matters I want to raise. The first is the statement in the newspapers today that the question of revised legislation on judicial appointments is to go before the Cabinet and that a new scheme for a judicial...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: Hear, hear.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: To follow on on the theme of transport, the BusConnects programme from the National Transport Authority is the subject of a major public consultation process and today is the last day for residents in Dublin to put in their observations on it. I want to make one comment of general, not local, application about that. There is a danger in putting traffic engineers in charge of a process who...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Second Stage (18 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: Was it not smoke signals?

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Second Stage (18 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I indicate my complete support for the campaign brought to public attention by Jackie Fox on the part of her daughter, Nicole. I commend Deputy Howlin and his colleagues in the Labour Party on introducing legislation to deal with this matter. What Senator Rónán Mullen has just said is true. We should not be in a position that we are pushing this through without adequate time to...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Second Stage (18 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: If one publishes an article, there is one standard for people standing over their remarks on the letters to the editor page and a completely different standard for people who make abusive, ridiculous and sometimes moronic comments anonymously. That is part of this failure to adequately balance anonymity and moral responsibility.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: I will briefly deal with the matter raised by Senator Fitzpatrick. There is on the Order Paper of this House a Bill to deal with a particular relating to the naming of child victims of crime. I ask the Leader to make provision for that legislation to be dealt with as a matter of urgency if the Minister is content to do so. I raise the question today of what happened in Brussels with the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (1 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: This legislation is somewhat overdue. As Senator Gallagher notes, the delay in introducing it has resulted in a €2 million penalty being imposed on the State. Further enforcement action is in the pipeline, which is unfortunate. On the other hand, as the Bill is before us now, we must deal with it on its merits. I wish to indicate at this stage that I have no major problems with the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (1 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: With regard to the issue I raised and on which others have supported me, can the Minister of State indicate whether the Department is willing to engage in advance on draft amendments? It would be a big help rather than to run up against a stone wall on Committee Stage.

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Engagement with Committee for the Executive Office, Northern Ireland Assembly on Impact of Brexit (2 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: What, in the view of the members of the assembly committee, can be done to counter threats at Larne and all of the rest becoming a bigger issue? What I have in mind is this. Obviously, one can condemn it but we do not want public support growing. It seems to me that there is some room for tweaking practice between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as regards, say, stocking supermarkets....

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Engagement with Committee for the Executive Office, Northern Ireland Assembly on Impact of Brexit (2 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: Yes.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: I agree with the Senator on the matter. We have the Statute Law (Restatement) Act. It is desirable to have an official version of the legislation to which the ordinary man or woman can have instant access. If we take the money laundering and terrorist financing legislation as a code, it should be available at all times in a readable form without having to do research. I strongly support...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: When this amendment is made, this Bill will have to go back to the Dáil. I believe that everybody wants the Bill to go through quickly. We do not want to delay it in any way, shape or form.However, in those circumstances, I ask that the amendments and the debate on them here today be fully considered. First, if this amendment is accepted we are not operating on the basis now that the...