Results 2,761-2,780 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I would like to raise a number of matters that have come into the public domain internationally in the past week. In particular, the G20 summit in Buenos Aires featured Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman-----

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: -----being feted by the other members of the leading economies internationally. We in this House are very much muted in expressing any views on international affairs. When we do express views, such as on the occupied territories legislation, which I hope will be debated and concluded in the House tomorrow, we come under a major push-back from the Department of Foreign Affairs for standing...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: -----human rights of people. I believe we should have a debate on Saudi Arabia-----

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: -----and the opportunity to express our disgust at the slaughter of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and our revulsion at the fact that the person responsible for that atrocity is still striding the world like a colossus and being greeted by international statespeople. We should also make time to debate what is happening to the Republic of Ukraine. It is wrong that the...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: She is not here either.

Seanad: Annual National Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (4 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House. While I wish to indicate some degree of disquiet on my part, I am not going to go into point scoring mode. This annual transition statement was apparently published at lunchtime and we are supposed to respond to it now and oral statements were supposed to be made on it within four or five hours. That is not satisfactory. I do not blame the Minister who...

Seanad: Annual National Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (4 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Minister of State has a typescript to reply to a debate to which he did not listen.

Seanad: Annual National Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (4 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Minister has come in here with a typescript to answer a debate which he did not attend.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I have said most of what I wanted to say about the whole question of the sitting Judiciary being required to apply to a body which is not the Government for consideration to be appointed to positions in the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal or to the presidencies of those courts. I will ask the Minister a simple, factual question. As I understood it, a procedure was recently put in place...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: It is appointment to a more senior position.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I am grateful to the Minister for saying as much as he did, but I wanted to know whether the procedure for signifying willingness would continue or be prohibited?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: That is the point. The only channel of communication for an ordinary judge of the High Court to the Government will be via the judicial appointments commission.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I am teasing it out, but if that is the case, it means what I said on other occasions about other amendments must certainly be true in this instance. The Government will effectively be kept in the dark on the sitting judges who are willing to serve in the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court. The Minister is effectively saying it will be unlawful for anybody to communicate his or her...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I believe that is unconstitutional, but it is a contrived opinion of mine. To me, there is absolutely no excuse. Senator Bacik has just arrived in the Chamber.For her information, I point out that the Minister has clarified that once the Bill comes into operation, it will be prohibited for a member of the Judiciary to communicate to the Government his or her willingness to accept promotion...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Such a judge would not even have any means to communicate to the Government his or her wish to be appointed. It is strange that the Supreme Court could function with one or more members of the High Court sitting on the bench and yet a group of people other than the Government-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: -----can censor the fact a judge of the High Court has applied to become a member of the Supreme Court but been found unsuitable for that position. How can the commission be permitted to deliberately keep the Government in the dark in that regard? There is another issue of which I wish to remind the Minister.We were told in Part 2, at section 7, that the decision to recommend a person for...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I agree with the Minister in one respect, namely, that this is the logic of the positions he has successively adopted in the course of the Second Stage debate and the Committee Stage debate. This is the logic of his position but it must be clearly understood. If this Bill goes to the Supreme Court under Article 26 of the Constitution, it must be clear what the Minister intends, in case...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: No. If we enact this law, it will be unlawful for anybody to tell the Government the names of the judges who wished to be considered by the Government for appointment but who were forced into the judicial appointments process and left off the shortlist that goes to the Cabinet. There could not be anything starker as an unconstitutional proposition than that. With the original Judicial...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: It depends on his or her behaviour.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: They will be in a minority at every stage.