Results 21-40 of 18,806 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I am not against efficiency.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: Just so everyone knows, Senator Craughwell and I spent an hour talking about this section this morning and came here with the express intention of opposing it.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I strongly urge the Minister to reconsider this particular amendment. This amendment to the Act of 2009 was tendered in the course of the Dáil debate by the Minister. It is not referred to, as far as I can see, in the original explanatory memorandum and it actually promises a very radical effect of change in the defamation law of this country. The House should be made aware that back...

Seanad: Support for Ukraine: Motion (14 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Fianna Fáil Members for tabling this important motion. Those of us in the Seanad Independent Group had put down a similar motion, which was much less elaborate, on 22 September to the same effect. I thank those Members who have also tabled amendments to the motion. It is important that this House speaks frequently on this subject. While you can illuminate the outside of...

Seanad: Support for Ukraine: Motion (14 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 5: In page 7, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following: “PART 4 DEFAMATORY STATEMENT 6. Section 2 of the principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution of the following for the definition of “defamatory statement” appearing in that section: “ ‘defamatory statement’ means a statement that tends to cause harm...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I will come back to them at a later stage. We are not on Report Stage yet. I will be proposing them later.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: The Minister has proposed in section 8 that there should be a provision which deals slightly with the circumstances we are discussing here but it is inadequate. There is not much point in waiting until section 8 is reached to point out that it is no answer to the points that have been raised by Senators. It proposes to extend the defence of qualified privilege to situations where the...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I am grateful to the Minister for his reply. I am also grateful to him for quoting from his own officials' view about what people in the Attorney General's office have said. That is a first, I have to say.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I would say there will be a salvo coming the Minister's way from Merrion Street for doing that. However, it answers the question in that I had suspected there was a notion that the serious harm threshold was regarded with suspicion by what I consider to be extremely conservative legal advice. I will give an example to Members of the House. If somebody called me a paedophile, that would be...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: They are very welcome.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: No, I am glad the Leas-Chathaoirleach did that. We will reach the amendment at a later stage, but I ask the Minister to think about this point. The Minister is proposing that the courts will be able to say to people that yes, they have been defamed and they have no other way of finding out who defamed them other than to bring an application to court, but they must now pay Elon Musk and...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I do not want to call a vote at 2.30 p.m. because we will be here until 2.45 p.m. In the two minutes remaining, I want to make the point to the Minister that if Senator Fitzpatrick received a letter from somebody saying she had defamed them in something she said in this House, her solicitor could write back and say that was an occasion of absolute privilege. If the person then commenced a...

Seanad: Supports and Services for Patients with Head and Neck Cancers: Motion (8 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I second the motion.

Seanad: Supports and Services for Patients with Head and Neck Cancers: Motion (8 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I have great pleasure in seconding Senator Craughwell's motion. He has spoken very eloquently and movingly about the personal aspects of this particular issue, which is raised in the notice of motion. I just want to say a few things. I am very grateful to him that he used the time of the Independent group of Senators to put this issue before the House. In large measure, it is something...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (1 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 3: In page 6, line 28, after “jury” to insert the following: “, unless it is ordered by the High Court that, having regard to the nature of the claim on which the particular action is based, both the public interest and the interests of justice would be better served by its trial with a jury.”. This amendment is similar to amendment...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (1 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Minister for his reply insofar as it goes. However, he has avoided the fundamental proposition that I asked him to give a clearer explanation for, namely why it is that if somebody alleges that he or she was beaten up by a garda, he or she is entitled to a jury trial, but if a journalist says that he or she was beaten up by a garda, no such entitlement exists? In the course of...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (1 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I listened very carefully to the Minister's reply. When I asked why do this, he said it is because we can do it. That is a remarkable proposition. I asked the question as to why should we do it and he said because we can. It is a very strange argument in favour of changing the law. Of course we can change the law. We can do many things, subject to the views of the Members of the House....

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (1 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 4: In page 7, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following: “6. Nothing in this Part prohibits the trial in the High Court with a jury of a claim in defamation in conjunction with any related claim arising substantially out of the same alleged facts and circumstances which would otherwise be triable by the High Court with a jury.”. This proposed...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2025)

Michael McDowell: I want to be associated with the kind remarks the Cathaoirleach and others have made about Julie Lyons on the occasion of her impending retirement, which we are marking. She is a wonderful woman and very kind to all of us. I definitely agree with what was said by Senator Boyle, that hospitality is slightly different to catering and that she managed to crown one with the other. At the end...