Results 4,801-4,820 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

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.

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: For somebody who was in a party that 20 years ago was going to establish an independent authority, I do not think the Deputy can say that what I have done in five years is wrong. The other point is that we are part of a Dáil that is entitled to accountability from the Garda Commissioner, who is now the Accounting Officer for the Garda Síochána. There is and will be provision in the...

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: That is not the case.

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: I am running away from nothing.

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: If the Deputy sits down I will answer him. For the past four years I have been pushing the Garda radio project with vigour and determination. I have had to negotiate several public procurement hurdles and roundabouts——

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: The record shows that I have been pushing that project forward as the Deputies can find out for themselves if they make a freedom of information inquiry.

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: It has not.

Policing Authority. (4 Apr 2007)

Michael McDowell: Some things take time.