Results 4,161-4,180 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: In the Dáil we amended the Bill by inserting section 32, which deals with the form of cautions that can be administered to people under the judges' rules. That is in section 32, as it now stands. Senator Cummins's amendments may, in effect, try and deal with the same territory from a slightly different angle, but the matter has been addressed.

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: As the House will be aware, the judges' rules are a series of rules laid down by a judicial committee on a reference from the UK Home Secretary in the early 1900s, in which he asked judges to examine the question of what safeguards should be applied to people who are at risk of making inculpatory statements to the police. They more or less remained the same until now with some minor...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I have considerable sympathy for the general proposition that there seems to be a creeping policy of excluding Members of the Oireachtas from virtually anything that moves. Any such exclusion must be justified on an individual basis. I agree that every time there is a draft Bill, this little item should not appear from the word processor concerning any State body. There is a reason to go...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am advised by the Parliamentary Counsel that the wording used in this case is standard form wording. The Parliamentary Counsel can see that this could be worded differently but sees no good reason why it should be. I am not disposed to accept this amendment in the circumstances.

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The amendment proposes to increase fine penalties and arises from a recommendation in the Hogan report which has been incorporated in sections 47 and 48. Section 47(b) increases to €5,000 the maximum fine for the offence of withholding information in relation to stolen property under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001. The offence is a summary offence and the new...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Senator has made an interesting proposition. Perhaps we should have a separate offence of manufacturing a statement or falsifying a record. The Senator catches me slightly off guard on this matter but I imagine any such action would be categorised as an attempt to pervert the course of justice and punishable as such. We should examine whether we need a specific offence of knowingly...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am happy to inform the House that the Government intends to reform the law on juries generally. The Courts Service is also studying the issue of where we should go in respect of reform of jury law. Juries should not necessarily be selected the way they are, namely, that 200 people are brought in on the morning of a trial and herded like cattle and then selected at random. That is no...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I will repeat what I said in the Dáil on this proposed amendment. It is outside the scope of the Bill as it was originally intended and it raises some interesting questions. There was a notion that a person could not be subjected to what is termed double jeopardy regarding a charge which had ended in acquittal. My view is in accordance with that of Senator Cummins. I believe that if new...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Hogan committee was established last November and, in respect of the right to silence issue and the drawing of inferences, I asked the committee to produce a break-out report because I was legislating in an affected area. I did not ask the committee to rush through its full report for the purpose of this legislation and allowed it time to consider the other issues at greater length....

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: This amendment was tabled in the Dáil and seeks to make provision for identification parades to be conducted through one-way mirrors. The idea is that the accused person need not be necessarily physically in a position to see the identifying person or that the old method — which happily is now gone — in which, for example, the victim of a rape was obliged to put his or her hand on the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Following the Dáil debate, I asked my Department to examine the issue. It will consult the Garda on the practicalities of the proposal. I cannot give a firm deadline, but it is a necessary reform that should be introduced.

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I strongly agree with the Senator's proposal and if I had a free hand, I would accept the amendments. However, I reiterate the argument I made in the House that these amendments say to the Supreme Court that we do not like the decision made in 1990 and we agree with the two judges in the minority rather than the majority of three judges. We would, therefore, be legislating on the assumption...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: If gardaí search a house on foot of a warrant and discover evidence relevant to another case, they are entitled to seize it and act on foot of it. While I am not an expert on American law, I can say that the exclusionary rules there are very strict. While I do not know if it is still the case, it seemed to be upheld at federal and Supreme Court level that the use of a scanner from a road...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: This is a proposal to insert in the conditions under which bail can be granted that the person shall not infringe the criminal law and also "shall otherwise be of good behaviour". It mirrors the conditions frequently laid down when sentences are suspended that the person being admitted to liberty on a suspended sentence enters into a cognisance to keep the peace and be of good behaviour....

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The proposal in this group of amendments is to establish a register of sentences in criminal cases. The establishment of such a register would require the case number, the offence, the particulars of the offence and any mitigating factors relied on by the convicted person or his defence counsel, as well as other details, to be noted. It would be an enormously difficult task for a person to...

Seanad: Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (27 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: While I am not keen on the statutory approach, the Courts Service, which is an independent body that administers the operation of the courts and on which the Judiciary has a majority, established a steering committee in October 2004 to plan for and provide a system of information on sentencing. The initiative of the board was designed to provide some systemic form of information as a...

Written Answers — Visa Applications: Visa Applications (26 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The person in question has been granted a visa and is currently in the State on a visit. If she now wishes to remain on a longer term basis she must seek such permission, by written application, to the General Immigration area of my Department. Contact details are on my Department's website, www.justice.ie.

Written Answers — Citizenship Applications: Citizenship Applications (26 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to in the Deputy's question was received in the Citizenship Section of my Department on 19 June 2006. Officials in that Section are currently processing applications received in the latter half of 2004 and have approximately 11,000 applications on hand to be dealt with before that of the person concerned. These are...

Written Answers — Citizenship Applications: Citizenship Applications (26 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to in the Deputy's question was received in the Citizenship Section of my Department on 13 May 2005. Officials in that Section are currently processing applications received in the latter half of 2004 and have approximately 1,800 applications on hand to be dealt with before that of the person concerned. These are...

Written Answers — Citizenship Applications: Citizenship Applications (26 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to in the Deputy's question was received in the Citizenship Section of my Department on 19 April 2006. Officials in that section are currently processing applications received in the latter half of 2004 and have approximately 6,700 applications on hand to be dealt with before that of the person concerned. These are...