Results 3,461-3,480 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

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.

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

Michael McDowell: Deputy O'Callaghan and I may have different views about what is involved in this. If there are to be 50 appointments made per year and there are to be interviews for those 50 appointments per year, it is not anything like the commitment that would be required of a board member of a semi-State company, who would have monthly meetings. It is something very different. If one District Court...

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

Michael McDowell: I can assure the Minister that JAAB would have dealt with 100 applicants in two hours.

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

Michael McDowell: I agree with that.

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

Michael McDowell: The birthdays are random days.

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

Michael McDowell: I will indicate very briefly where I stand on these amendments. On amendment No. 8, I prefer the present wording of section 7 to the proposed wording of the new section. I do not believe that the juxtaposing of the merit principle and the diversity principle will assist at all. It would create confusion. Senator Ó Donnghaile's proposed section 7(1) would seriously dilute the idea of...

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

Michael McDowell: Amendments Nos. 9 and 12.