Results 2,841-2,860 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I wish to speak briefly to the section. I agree with Senator Black's analysis of it. The definition of "occupied territory" is not related to one particular corner of this planet and is of general application. It is perfectly legitimate for the State to uphold international law by rendering the importation of goods and the supply of services from an unlawfully occupied territory to be a...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: When I reported progress, I had asked the Minister to set out some of the thinking in regard to Senator Bacik's amendment No. 72 and to set out his own attitude to that amendment.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: If the Minister is trying to introduce an irrelevant and slightly offensive tone to this debate, he started off on the right foot. He informed the House that I was probably involved in the campaign to prevent solicitors from becoming judges of the High Court, or else that I was too busy in the Law Library to participate in the debate while I was a barrister. If he checks the record,...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: No, a lawyer. I cannot imagine that a lawyer would seek appointment to the District Court Bench and, within two years, say he or she is in the wrong court and should be in the High Court. A person so philosophically and professionally confused about where his or her forte in law lay would need a great deal of counselling. If one applies to be a District Court judge, one is applying for a...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Humanities or something like that. Some other phrase is used now. The head of the law school is the dean but the dean is not the head of a faculty. In King's Inns, the dean is not the head of a faculty. I would have to check the rules. As far as I know in TCD, which is a major law school, it is a school.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: There is no faculty involved at all. I am bit mystified as to why we are using these terms without definition and why we are making special provision for people who have done that. I can well imagine the head of the law school in Trinity going on if they have faculties in Trinity – I presume they do-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Senator is not losing them.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Senator is not losing them yet.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: This legislation appears to have a governance picture of the law schools in Ireland which is not what happens on the ground. There is a dean of the law school in UCD, an immensely talented woman-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: There is a law school in TCD but I am not clear whether its head is called a dean, and the head of the law school in the college is not the head of the faculty as far as I am aware. Can I have an explanation for this elaborate provision for a job that does not exist in the Law Society of Ireland or in the King's Inns? One might be the head of the humanities faculty or whatever the old arts...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I am not purporting to do so.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I hope Senator Norris will not take offence at this, but I must agree that his claim that high-flying academics will demean themselves by becoming judges of the District Court is slightly unfortunate.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: As he is not disposed to withdrawing that phrase, I must express my disagreement with it because the position of district judge is an important constitutional office in our judicial system. The District Courts and the Circuit Courts may be courts of local and limited jurisdiction, but nobody demeans oneself by becoming a judge in any of those courts. When the Senator used the phrase...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Senator Bacik herself is an example of that. I have no problem with that. I think that is great. I am quite happy with the idea that if somebody had practised for six years as a solicitor and then sought a post at Trinity College, that after accumulating the relevant years of experience as a legal academic there, that person would be eligible for appointment to the Judiciary. I have a...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Senator Lawlor always comes in-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: -----with these little mots justes. I do not know what point he is making. Our Judiciary is excellent. It is not the case that somebody who has just seen the inside of a court is as good as a candidate from the Judiciary.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: Service on a jury does not make one an eligible full-time judge.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: It is absurd to suggest-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I ask the Minister to indicate why the amendments made in the Act of 2002 to the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board provisions in the 1995 Act are to be done away with and the requirement for appropriate experience of the practice and procedure of the Supreme Court and the High Court to now be dispensed with as a criterion for eligibility. Why would we do that at this stage, with this...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: I want to talk about leave to withdraw. I would say to Senator Bacik that I know why she is withdrawing amendment No. 76 at this stage but-----