Results 4,321-4,340 of 18,728 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: They are like putty in my hands.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: We do.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: It covers heavy grade criminality.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: It is a good Victorian approach.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: The answer to that is "No".
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: This is a replication of the existing basis of remission. We have a practice in this countryââ
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: The Deputy should allow me to answer. We have a practice in this country that one gets a quarter of one's sentence off. In the United Kingdom, it is one third off.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: Every judge in the United Kingdom knows that one will get a third off when a sentence is imposed. When a judge in Ireland gives a ten year sentence, he or she knows a prisoner will be allowed out after seven and a half years, unless the prisoner does something in the course of his or her imprisonment which is of such a serious nature to allow a substantial deprivation of his or her liberty...
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: I have not derided what was suggested by Deputy Kenny in this regard. What I am saying is that the system would collapse if one had to earn one's quarter, in the sense that if one had a non-presumptive system in which one had to show one had earned one's quarter off, and that it was a matter of debate in the case of each prisoner whether he or she had done so.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: The Deputy should allow me to finish and I will tell him why. I have not derided his position, I am simply informing him of the reality. Under European convention, and probably under the Constitution, there would have to be a very elaborate procedure before one prisoner was dealt with radically differently to another prisoner. If it was proposed to forfeit remission, there would have to be...
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: There would also have to be an appeal procedure within the prison system. A colossal industry would have to be set up in order to work out whether prisoner O'Keeffe or prisoner Howlin were entitled to an extra two months or whatever, or whether the day one or the other of them threw his porridge on the floor amounted to a reason for another two weeks to go on his sentence. Practicality must...
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: It is all very well to say prisoners will have to earn remission and they will not get it unless they satisfy the governor and all the rest of it. Prison governors and prison officers would spend their lives in court arguing about the whys and the wherefores of cases. I do not wish to elaborate at too much length, I merely say it may sound good to say that at an Ard-Fheis but it would...
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: ââall of the independent procedures, and all of the appeal procedures. If one were to do that, one would bring down chaos on top of one. It may be crude to prescribe a quarter of a sentence off but it works. Before anybody comes up with a theory about this, let us remember what was unfairly attributed to Garret FitzGerald, when he is reputed to have said, "That is all right in practice,...
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: I am not.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: The current practice is that one gets a quarter of a sentence off unless one does something which is totally egregious which gives rise to a hearing that would allow one's remission to be retracted.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: No, it is not earned.
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: Before Deputy Jim O'Keeffe gets up on his soapbox againââ
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: ââI say to him, Deputy Kenny told people that a prisoner would not get remission unless he or she fulfilled certain criteria and, in effect, earned his or her remission. He said he would change the law. I accept Deputy Howlin wishes to move on to other matters but I wish to clarify this matter. What has been proposed by Fine Gael is a recipe for chaos. It is a theoretical approach and...
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 57: In page 20, line 21, to delete "subsection (2)" and substitute "subsections (2) and (3)".
- Criminal Justice Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Apr 2007)
Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 59: In page 20, lines 30 to 33, to delete all words from and including "within" in line 30 down to and including "period")," in line 33 and substitute the following: "that is committedâ (i) during the period of 7 years from the date of conviction of the first offence and, for the purpose of determining that period, there shall be disregarded any period of imprisonment...