Results 4,761-4,780 of 18,728 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Criminal Law Review. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The exclusionary rule is the rule that defines the circumstances under which a court will exclude evidence on the grounds that it has been obtained in violation of the accused's rights. This issue was examined in some detail by the Balance in the Criminal Law Review Group chaired by Dr. Gerard Hogan. Customarily, the common law did not have an exclusionary rule and the courts allowed...

Criminal Law Review. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I agree with the Deputy and the minority view in the Kenny case. I am bound, as is every citizen, by the majority view of the Supreme Court but, had Deputy Jim O'Keeffe or I held the swing vote things might have gone the other way. However, we were not there and other people decided the case the way they did.

Criminal Law Review. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I do not mean to put that thought in anyone's head. The Deputies should take a look at the rule on unforeseen consequences. I once defended a person and the garda applied for a warrant for St. Audoen's House, an apartment complex, but the District court clerk, misreading the garda's handwriting wrote it out for St. Andrew's House and the case collapsed on that point. The garda knew what...

Garda Investigations. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: There is no doubt that the circumstances giving rise to the judgment in question constitute further evidence of an extremely disturbing picture of misbehaviour by some gardaí in County Donegal in the 1990s. Anyone who strongly supports the Garda Síochána, as I and the vast majority of Deputies and citizens do, is entitled to express and feel a great sense of shock, disappointment and...

Garda Investigations. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is of some note that the judgment of the Chief Justice states: "Who was involved in making this offer of a "deal" to the plaintiff and how the fulfilment of a promise to drop outstanding charges and ensure early release could have been achieved was never explored or explained in the evidence." I am totally in the dark, as was the Chief Justice when he wrote the judgment, as to precisely...

Garda Investigations. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: ——and there was a general feeling of revulsion among those present, who were almost sick to the stomach about the effect on the Garda Síochána of behaviour of this kind. It defies belief that people would do——

Garda Investigations. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Exactly. The Garda Síochána Act put in place a radically different approach to accountability from that found by Mr. Justice Morris when he conducted his inquiries into events in County Donegal. Apart from individual accountability and remedies and new disciplinary procedures, the Act also provides for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. Ample inquiries have been made in the case...

Garda Investigations. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I do not want to add to the suffering of the individual who was so wronged by the State by dragging him into this matter. Clearly, the individual in question must know how the offer was communicated and who communicated it, if not who was behind the making of the offer. It may have come through lawyers but, as I do not know the facts, it is a matter I will have to examine. Before I appoint...

Criminal Assets Bureau. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I refer the Deputy to my reply of 22 February 2007 to Priority Question No. 3 in which I dealt with this subject. I set out the following summary points in responding again today to the issue of a more localised Criminal Assets Bureau structure. I have no difficulty in principle with a proposal for more localised CAB bureaux but what must determine our attitude is an assessment of how in...

Criminal Assets Bureau. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I would not like Deputy Cuffe to create the impression that CAB's activities are confined to the city of Dublin, which is not the case. It is active and pursues the proceeds of crime throughout the country. For example, it has been very active on a number of occasions in Deputy Howlin's constituency and has recovered very large sums of money. It is not the case that CAB members are somehow...

Criminal Assets Bureau. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: It is not a choice between one and the other. I welcome the support for the Criminal Justice Bill of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and most of the political parties, with the exception of the Deputy's party and Sinn Féin. My views are not unusual on these matters, although I might sometimes find myself lonely on the matter in some newspaper columns. The inspector of...

Criminal Assets Bureau. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: She is there because I pushed through the Act to create that position. Let us remember that.

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am not in favour of establishing a separate Garda authority as I believe we have a fully independent and democratically accountable Garda authority already, in the form of the Oireachtas.

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The perceived advantage of a separate authority is that it interposes an additional layer of independent accountability between the political process and the management of the Garda Síochána. The idea of such an authority makes perfectly good sense in the context of the UK regional police structure where there is no corresponding regional democratic unit, and in Northern Ireland, where...

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The Garda Síochána is our intelligence service. It would be unspeakable and an error of monumental proportions to put that away from Government. I appeal to the two parties opposite to consider my final point very carefully, namely that our Constitution requires the executive powers of the State to be answerable in the House to the public representatives here.

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is a very good point. The executive powers of the State are required by our Constitution to be the subject of accountability in the House. That is the reason Ministers for Justice have statutory functions with regard to the Garda Síochána and are called to book here in the House when something goes wrong. The Deputies opposite cannot have it both ways. They cannot say I am not...

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: There is a profound constitutional question with regard to a proposal that the executive function of policing the State should be hived off from Government and given to something like the RTE authority or the Health Service Executive. That is a profoundly erroneous proposition. It is one put forward by the Labour Party about 20 years ago on two separate occasions in Government, but it was...

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I said nothing of the sort about an ombudsman commission. I have the authority of the Government to establish an all-party policing and security committee. That is the appropriate way for the House to act. Members of that committee and the members of the Northern Ireland policing executive should form an all-Ireland policing forum. That is the way forward. I have established, in the...

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: No, I emphatically do not — that is the short answer. I am amazed to hear Deputy Jim O'Keeffe say, having espoused the notion of an independent Garda authority, that he does not yet know whether elected public representatives would be part of such an authority or in what numbers. This is astonishing. The Deputy has obviously not even consulted with those in the Labour Party who were the...

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: No, it has not been dragged from the Government. I am implementing and doing it.