Results 2,721-2,740 of 19,162 for speaker:Alan Shatter
- Leaders' Questions (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: Including the right to life, Deputy Adams should note.
- Other Questions: Magdalen Laundries Issues (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: I find it difficult to take the Deputy lecturing me on this issue when I compare it to the callousness of her and her colleagues' response to the Smithwick report.
- Other Questions: Magdalen Laundries Issues (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: It is amazing how members of one party are sensitive to some issues, but lack the sensitivity to appropriately address or to recognise their responsibility for other issues. As the Deputy should know, matters relating to the scheme were finalised only on 5 November because of the complexity of the Quirke recommendations. My Department has done extraordinarily well since 5 November in...
- Other Questions: Magdalen Laundries Issues (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: The Deputy is focusing on one or two applicants who have run into a difficulty, out of 270 odd. I particularly welcome the fact that we have this scheme in place and are processing it. Former residents of the Magdalen laundries have furnished us with their applications and are engaging with us. So far, there has been substantial acceptance of offers made in the context of timelines. I...
- Other Questions: Magdalen Laundries Issues (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: The Government's first priority is to facilitate the processing of applications under the scheme and to implement those measures necessary to provide the individual benefits recommended by Mr. Justice Quirke to the women who were admitted to and worked in the institutions in question. To this end, on 5 November 2013 the Government agreed to the payments and services to be provided on an...
- Other Questions: Magdalen Laundries Issues (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: To date, 636 applications have been received and these are being processed as quickly as possible by the Department. A total of 270 provisional letters were issued to applicants that are at an advanced stage of processing requesting them to agree or disagree with the provisional assessment made by my officials on the length of time they were in a relevant institution. Some 145 applicants...
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: He is oblivious to the number of individuals currently in prison, sentenced to life terms for committing murder. The Deputy lives in some extraordinary world that is separated from the world inhabited by the rest of us. I know of the Deputy's affection for certain substances-----
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: -----but it is unfortunate if that affects the Deputy's judgment when it comes to addressing issues of public importance. No Member of this House with any sense of responsibility should give out a message from this House that, in this State, one can get away with murder. The reality is, if someone commits a homicide, the Garda investigates that rigorously.
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: Where there is evidence, individuals are brought before the courts and prosecuted. Then there are two things, that are independent, of importance, something that the other Deputy mentioned that she does not seem to approve of.
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: We have a Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, who is rightly independent of political interference by Government and we have an independent courts system that, when people are prosecuted, as Deputy Wallace will be familiar with, determines their guilt or innocence. That is the legal system that we have. No Deputy, whatever constituency he or she represents-----
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: -----should give out from this House a message that-----
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: -----people are free to murder, that justice will not be done and that the Garda will not properly investigate it.
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: It is a disgraceful message for any Deputy to give out.
- Other Questions: State Pathologists (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: The Deputy will appreciate that the prosecution of offences is a function which is reserved to the DPP who is fully independent in that area and it is up to her to determine how a particular prosecution should be dealt with. That being said, I have been advised generally that the resignation of Dr. Khalid Jaber from the post of Deputy State Pathologist should not prevent the prosecution of...
- Other Questions: State Pathologists (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: Firstly, the Deputy is right, in that I am advised that he will make himself available to give evidence. Also as I have explained, my overall understanding is that the resignation of Dr. Jaber should not prevent the prosecution of criminal cases where medical examinations have been carried out by him. There have been similar circumstances in the past. The Deputy will recall how Dr....
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: The Deputy said that the word on the street, at least in his constituency, is a person can get away with murder. I presume the Deputy is oblivious to the number of individuals An Garda Síochána has arrested in circumstances where homicides are alleged. He has not noticed the number of trials that have taken place. He has not noticed the number of convictions that have been...
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: First, the counsel appointed will be able to raise any questions or queries that arise with An Garda Síochána. I am presuming this will occur and that gardaí will fully co-operate with that. I am sure the Deputies will be interested to know I have received a detailed report which addresses all of the different issues that have been in the public domain and issues raised in...
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: There have been all kinds of media reports around this case. I ask the Deputy to withhold judgment on all that until a document is published. The job of the senior counsel is not to re-investigate what An Garda Síochána has investigated. The job of the senior counsel is to look at what is a very detailed report that for all sorts of legal reasons cannot be put into the public...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Proposed Legislation (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: Both Bills will be passed in 2014 and the Legal Services Regulation Bill should be enacted during the first half of 2014. We will publish the amendments to that Bill very soon. As Deputy Niall Collins knows, we originally hoped to continue Committee Stage in December. The good news is that this is now scheduled for 15 and 16 January 2014, immediately following our return from the Christmas...
- Other Questions: Garda Investigations (10 Dec 2013)
Alan Shatter: I propose to take Questions Nos. 71, 99, 380 and 381 together. I refer the Deputies to my reply to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 75 and 81 of 5 November 2013 wherein I indicated that in the interests of transparency, I was consulting with the Attorney General with a view to the appointment of a senior counsel to conduct an independent examination of the report of the serious crime review...