Results 3,421-3,440 of 18,727 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I have no idea whatsoever as to where this journey is likely to end. I accept the Minister is in a theoretical minority in this House but, because of the deal done with Sinn Féin, he is not really in that much of a minority. However, I think we are entitled to be informally told if the Minister does not intend to accept any of our amendments, if he intends to accept some or if he is...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I truly welcome the remarks made by the Minister. I will do what he asks, and not press the amendment now. As I explained, it is there to enable amendment No. 90 to have effect, and not to leave it high and dry if it was made by itself. I also welcome very strongly what the Minister has said about his relationship with the Association of Judges of Ireland, and his anticipated relationship...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I have agreed not to press the amendment in view of the attitude expressed by the Minister. I am withdrawing it and reserving the right to resubmit it on Report Stage.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: To my shame, it did not occur to me to table amendments in respect of this matter. When I look at it now, I realise that the territory covered by the amendment is hugely important.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I know but I am making the point that it went past me that this is an important amendment which needs to be made to the Bill. I have not had the opportunity to read the GRECO report. I only heard what Senator Bacik said about it last night. I could not take it all in. I will have to look back at the blacks of the debate to understand what was and was not said last evening. While I am not...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I stand corrected. It held its meetings at the Grand Hotel in Malahide. It is not intended that the commission should mould the Judiciary in one way or the other as to outcomes in individual cases or outcomes of philosophy or whatever. This goes back to the point I made earlier, namely, that a person's political opinions can be hugely important when the Cabinet has to decide as to whether...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Imagine that I was not a lawyer. What would induce me to put my name forward to be one of the lay members - perhaps chairman, perhaps not - of the commission? What would be my motive for so doing? Are there people who just want, out of the goodness of their hearts and patriotism, to assist in a process of this kind without remuneration? Will they be properly remunerated for doing the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: The individual in question was rejected by the people operating under the Paris Principles chiefly because he had been a politician.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: It was crazy. He was no longer a politician and no longer a danger to anybody politically. He was rejected, however. People who, in my judgment, were far less in a position to give a rounded opinion as members of the commission were selected instead. I do not wish to embarrass another person but it involved somebody who has become since a senior member of the Judiciary and who is a noted...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I have always been liberal. The idea that people would put themselves forward as the kind of guy who would be on the Government's side when the court cases come to be decided would be very wrong. I am jealous of Senator Bacik for her industry and prescience in coming forward with this provision. It defines the scope of the judicial appointments commission. It warns off the activists from...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Someone from Opus Dei.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Nobody is demonising lay people. I am a champion of jury trial and I strongly believe in the jury trial. I have always thought that judge-only trial in criminal matters would end up being unfair and unjust, because judges become case-hardened and they tend to believe the people in uniform. We need a system whereby people are brought together to act as jurors, and I agree with what Senator...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I take the point, and I see the parallel. I have no problem with the parallel and I listened carefully to what Senator Dolan said last night. I thought there was a considerable degree of force. As to whether it should be a minority or a majority, that is a different matter. By the way, if it is genuinely a random group of lay people who end up on this, the lawyers will probably be quite...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I will make another point. There is nothing wrong with me asking this, and the Minister should answer now. Will these people be remunerated, and how? This is the point that I want to have teased out. What kind of commitment will people have to make to this institution? If I am one of the five, seven, or whatever number of lay people we arrive at in the end, will I be there once a week,...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: A Trinity lecturer perhaps could have done it but I do not know. I am making the point that if there is going to be an 80-day trial - it is a point for another day's debate on another Bill - and if we are going to have balanced juries, will we end up paying or compensating jurors for loss incurred in carrying out their function? At the moment we have a cheap way out where people who would...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: Patriotism.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: He may have had biscuits while there.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Minister of State for standing in for the Minister, Deputy Flanagan. We put some serious questions to the Minister and he has now had an opportunity to consider them. I would like him to deal with them and with what Senator Bacik said.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: The taxi drivers.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: That is one a week.