Results 2,101-2,120 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: I agree completely.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: This is why I queried the notion of merit. The criteria for appointing somebody are manyfold. Governments have in the past, to my certain knowledge, been confronted by people who are clever, hard-working and well steeped in the law and by people who are less clever, less hard-working and less learned in the law and yet the first person who has all these attributes might appear to be...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: Unless we have a legislative intervention of that kind, in a considerable number of cases, the law means what the Judiciary says it means. That applies not simply in Ireland but across the common law world. The power of the common law Judiciary is to interpret the law subject only to the right of the appellate courts to put them wrong, or for the Legislature to legislate where it is...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: Was the subject of the Senator's lectures "humility"?
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: As the Minister pointed out, we are only considering the amendment at this stage.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: That is the point. I just want to indicate that, in regard to the proposed new section, the Government should not be obliged to publish the names or make public the names of persons who have not been appointed to judicial office following their recommendation by the commission.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: The Minister now seems to be saying he is in favour of the principle that there should not be an obligation to make the names public. That is the very least that should be done in that respect. The real question is whether the decision ought to be kept secret. Apart from notifying unsuccessful candidates that they have not been shortlisted or have been unsuccessful - they can draw the...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: Votáil.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 96c:In page 32, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following:“Vacancies in the Superior Courts49.(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, where the Government decides to advise the President to appoint any serving judge who is a member of any of the Superior Courts to any vacancy arising in those Courts, the Minister shall notify the Commission of...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: It was not.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: Exactly. The Minister is indicating he will be accepting it so unless Sinn Féin has some objection, it will probably go through. I thank the Minister for accepting amendment No. 96c. That amendment is important. It came as a surprise to me that the Minister accepted it. It clearly-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: This is relevant to amendment No. 97 as well. Amendment No. 96c is the new section 49, and it means the deletion we would effect through amendment No. 97 copperfastens very clearly the principle that the Government retains the right without any explanation of any kind whatever-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: I am speaking on the combination of amendments Nos. 96c and 97.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: I am expressing its importance but I did not realise it had already been discussed. I do not want to be disorderly.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: I did not mean to be disorderly.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: I will agree to the question but surely there are other amendments.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 97a:In page 33, line 9, after "means" to insert "experience,". I do not agree to discussing the amendments together.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: The purpose of the amendment is to insert in section 50-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: They relate to different portions of sections.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 May 2019)
Michael McDowell: I apologise and the Leas-Chathaoirleach is correct. The amendments make the same point.