Results 3,601-3,620 of 18,727 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Report Stage (22 Mar 2018)

Michael McDowell: One could say it was the electoral wind but he would have said it was something different. The other point is that in this context, the term "electoral" may have to be defined as including campaigns to amend the Constitution and referendum campaigns. Elections are different from referendums. A political party, its members or a candidate for election to or a holder of electoral office are...

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Report Stage (22 Mar 2018)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister's openness to look at all these issues again. There is quite a difference between Cambridge Road, Rathmines, and Cambridge Analytica. Perhaps I am much more pedestrian in my focus but I am looking at it from that point of view. There is now an explicit reference to a referendum commission carrying out a processing of political opinions. I would make one observation...

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Report Stage (22 Mar 2018)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 8:In page 23, line 6, to delete "is 13 years of age" and substitute "shall not be a lower age than already defined in Article 8". I note the Minister's proposed amendment No. 9 on a review operating in respect of these subsections and I welcome it. My views have not changed since the previous occasion and repeating them would be somewhat needless. We have to be...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Amendment) Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: In defence of his wallet.

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: I endorse what Senator Higgins has been saying. I welcome the definition of a child as a person who is under the age of 18. One of my big problems is that I see around me quite contradictory attitudes towards childhood as a state. As I understand it, one is either a child or an adult. Although it is a somewhat arbitrary point in time, we have fixed the age of 18 as the point at which a...

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 7:In page 22, line 32, to delete "13 years" and substitute "16 years". This is an important subject which needs to be debated and thought about carefully. We are not dealing with the right to have a phone or whatever and a number of issues relating to young people's access to the Internet. We are dealing with the point at which a child aged 13, 14 or 15 is capable of...

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: It was not me.

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Minister has been very reasonable in what he has said, and although my amendment is at variance with the stance being taken by the Department, the debate has been useful in that it has raised the issue. It has been fairly thoroughly debated. It has been the occasion on which the amendments of Senators Ruane and Higgins have had their first run out, and if there is the prospect of...

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: No, what I will do in fact is I will move it.

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: I will not call for a vote on it.

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: Since we have moved away from the issue of children's rights and are dealing with a more general issue, I want to put one of the views on the record. The general data protection regulation, GDPR, is the culmination of a development of European Union law on data protection in which the progress towards protection and regulation has been inexorable and is becoming increasingly more...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: The Leader of the House is presumed to know everything on these occasions and to be able to answer everything. There has been great fanfare over the announcement of the State capital programme recently. It suddenly struck me that I was listening to a proposal for a metro system for Dublin that was no longer to involve metro north but metro north and south. There are statements that it will...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: Does this mean the green line will effectively be abolished and transformed into a rail line that goes underground somewhere in leafy Ranelagh? Will there be a green line anymore? Nobody has been able to explain this.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: Are all the long trams we are now buying to be redundant or what is to happen to them? The Leader knows everything so I ask my question in a spirit of curiosity.Will the Leader ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport or a Minister of State at that Department to come into the House to explain to us whether the green line will be abolished as part of this process, whether tram and...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: Well done.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: I endorse what was said by Senator Catherine Ardagh about the need for urgent action on the proposed sale of mortgages and small business loans by banks to what are commonly known as vulture funds. A couple of things must be remembered in that regard as there are two sides to the story. Some people over-extended themselves and owe money which they should be required to pay, if they have it....

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: Indeed. The boat the Senator already had was quite adequate.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: I hope the parties to the confidence and supply agreement will come to an agreement on the issue. I am fully in favour of a reasonable, rational approach to working out how ordinary owners of small and medium-sized enterprises and homeowners can be properly protected. The public should be informed of the nominal value of the loans being sold and the consideration received for them,...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: ------which lies at the heart of this transaction because if it is in the order of 20% or 30%, as a community, we should ask ourselves if we resuscitated the banks in order to allow a group of private enterprise companies from outside the country to make up the 70% difference by putting pressure on people. I hope that whatever accommodation is reached by the two parties to the confidence and...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: I wish to address two matters. First, I note that the Leader has proposed that the debate on the Data Protection Bill should finish at 1.30 p.m.