Results 2,601-2,620 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: However, there is the minor problem that in the Government there is a person who was party to Government decisions to make the 36 appointments to which I referred who says that the only way to stop patronage and favour giving is to alter the way in which those people have been selected. We will not return to that again, but these are disgraceful remarks. He is either a member of a...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I have been emphasising that from the very beginning. I am the person who supports the present system, which is working and which the Government is operating perfectly well. The Minister is the person who is trying to politicise the appointment of judges by handing the entire function over to a group of lay people. That is what is happening here. We should remember that it was the...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: Through the Chair, I ask the Minister not to suggest that I favour political patronage or have ever acted that way. I ask him to check the record when I had anything to do with judicial appointments and he will find that far from exercising political patronage-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: -----the Governments in which I operated as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and advised as Attorney General were singularly politically blind in their appointments.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I am pleased to hear that.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: The point I was trying to make-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I did not. I introduced the fact that there had been a list of 36 appointments.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I wish to say for Senator Bacik's interest that when I did my tot of the 36 appointments, 16 were women, which is quite a lot. It is not 18-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: -----but it is as close as makes practically no difference. This Government has been exemplary in its approach to gender issues concerning judicial appointments without any assistance from the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill. One does not need all of this stuff to make good appointments and to appoint good women to the Judiciary. We will go back then to what Senator Bacik is...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: The members of the Government are not idiots. If a shortlist of recommendations is made of candidates from one to three-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I am saying it is unnecessary.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: Through the Chair, I do not think it is necessary to tell the Cabinet, having received a list ranked in order of preference, that when they sit down to look at it they must consider the candidates in the same order.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I think they are capable of saying that.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: We are all elected under the PR system and we understand what one, two and three means.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I am not in favour of Senator Bacik's amendments. I ask her to withdraw them in the fullness of time but it is important that we should at least have an opportunity at this stage to express some preliminary opinions if the amendments are going to stand.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I accept that.
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 86a:In page 28, to delete lines 23 to 25. Amendment No. 86a, in my name and those of Senators Boyhan and Craughwell, proposes on page 28-----
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: Amendment No. 86a reads: "In page 28, to delete lines 23 to 25." It refers to section 41(2) which reads: "Nothing in subsection (2) shall be construed as limiting the advice the Government may give to the President with respect to the appointment by the President, under Article 35 of the Constitution, of a person to be a judge." Amendment No. 86a is connected to amendment No. 86b, which...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: That is a good point. In any event, it seems the Minister is with me on that point and he hopes to persuade the Dáil that it is mistaken in that provision. The second amendment tabled by Senators Boyhan, Craughwell and I, states that no provision of this Act affects in any way "the function and the duty", which is the important point. It is not simply an entitlement of the Government...
- Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)
Michael McDowell: It is a responsibility and a duty. If the Government believes that one person is better and more appropriate than another, it is under a constitutional duty to make the first person a judge-----