Results 3,341-3,360 of 18,727 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: If we put into legislation that the chair must be a layperson and then go on to say that, in the absence of that lay chairperson, the group which meets in the absence of that person cannot select from among their number the person they think is best qualified to chair their meeting and must exclude anybody with any legal knowledge, whether as a judge or legal professional, that will be a...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I bring the Minister back to section 15(5) which states: "The quorum for a meeting of the Commission shall, unless the Minister otherwise directs, be 9 members, 5 of whom shall be lay members." Why should a meeting with 12 people in attendance cease to be capable of discharging its function because only four lay members turn up on a particular day?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Why should that happen? It is wrong that it should happen. If we were saying that lay people should be prohibited from turning up, that would be one thing but if, for whatever accidental reason or series of reasons, five people who are lay members cannot make a meeting, and that is five out of eight-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Excuse me. We will go back to this again.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: No. I ask the Minister to listen to me. There are eight lay members on this commission, as I see it-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: There are nine lay members and if, for whatever reason, only four of them can turn up, the Minister is saying the meeting is invalid. I am saying that is utterly unreasonable because at that stage-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: In those circumstances, 13 members of the commission could be sitting in a room. They could have nominated one of their members to be chairperson who will have a vote and a casting vote and, even then, they are told the meeting cannot proceed because lay members are insufficiently represented. Let us flip this coin over to its other side. Why is there not a minimum representation of legal...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: -----who are incapable of discharging certain functions and incapable of being counted simply as members of the commission to form a quorum. That amuses me. If the House were to provide that Senators from the agricultural panel would not be capable of chairing in the absence of the Chair, would not be counted for a quorum or something like that, the injustice of it would be clear to us. It...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 22:In page 11, line 3, to delete "6 lay persons" and substitute "5 lay persons". This proposal is to substitute the reference to "6 lay persons" with "5 lay persons". It is designed to bring about a situation in which it is very clear that the lay participation in the judicial appointments commission should not be a majority of that commission. The thinking behind this...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I may only move the amendment.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Under Standing Order 62(3)(b), I request that the division be taken again other than by electronic means.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I refer to what Senator Norris said about weekend journalism. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me. I would like to remind the Members of the House of some of the things that have happened in this debate thus far, apart from the GRECO report and its non-publication, to which I will return. We should remember that the origins of this legislation predate the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I am and, therefore, I am coming to the question of a lay majority and where it came from. We should bear in mind where it came from. My attention was drawn to an article in The Sunday Timesrecently which referred to a new book of essays on judicial power in Ireland. It referred in particular to one essay in that book that set out in detail the circumstances that led to the particular...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Either we are to take it that the claim that the Cabinet was appointing its friends to judicial office was made by the Minister, Deputy Ross, or we are not, but it was a quote given to a respected journalist. I would prefer to accept the word of the respected journalist than any denial, which never came, by the way, from the Minister, Deputy Ross. It is a very serious matter that someone in...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: The point that I was making was relates to a quick search of the Internet this morning on the question of a lay majority. On 30 October 2016, almost two years ago, in an article in The Sunday Times, Mr. Mark Tighe, another respected journalist, stated, "Shane Ross has insisted that the Independent Alliance will block the appointment of any new judges until next June, by which time he expects...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I am asking the Fine Gael Members in this House in particular about this. I am coming to the conclusion that anything I say to Sinn Féin is wasted, especially in view of what was said earlier about the party's desire to ensure nobody with anti-republican views can get on the Judiciary in future. I ask the Fine Gael Members of this House to stand up for what they believe in. It is...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: He will do nothing. There are a few Independents in Dáil Éireann who would happily tog out to sustain the Government over the next year or so if Deputy Ross flounces off in a sense of disillusioned temper because this provision does not go through. What is the particular advantage of having a majority of lay people on this commission? There is only one explanation, which is a...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: It is worse than the American route.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: At least a majority in the Senate judiciary committee has a-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: In any event, I am strongly of the view that this is a misguided idea. I appeal to the members of the Fine Gael Party to do what another senior journalist, Stephen Collins, advised them to do in an article he wrote on 29 June 2017 in this respect. In an article "Fine Gael risks core values by appeasing Shane Ross", Mr. Collins stated, "Fine Gael has stumbled into a dangerous confrontation...