Results 521-540 of 18,724 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 26: In page 28, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: "Right of Government to advise President: consequential vacancies 43.Nothing in this Part affects, limits or inhibits the right of the Government in any case where it advises the President to appoint any member of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, or the High Court to any judicial office in any...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: Again, the purpose of this amendment is to rescue the Bill from nonsense. It was pointed out to the then Minister, Deputy Flanagan, that the previous Bill contained the same mistake. If the Government appoints a member of the Court of Appeal or an ordinary member of the Supreme Court to be Chief Justice, a string of vacancies can arise as a result. At present, it is perfectly open to the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: It does not interview anyone.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: Section 43(2) reads: "An application for recommendation ... shall not be made ... otherwise than pursuant to an invitation issued under section 42."A section 42 invitation can arise only where the Minister requests the commission to make recommendations for appointment to a judicial office where a judicial office stands vacant or he or she reasonably anticipates that there will be a vacancy...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 27a: In page 32, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: "(6) The Commission shall not recommend any person for appointment to judicial office in the State unless it is satisfied that the person is a citizen of Ireland.".

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 28: In page 34, to delete lines 1 to 7 and substitute the following: “Appointments to judicial office in the State: recommended persons to be first considered 51.(1) In advising the President in relation to the appointment of a person to judicial office in the State, the Government shall first consider for appointment those persons who have been recommended by...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: These two amendments go to the heart of this legislation. The Government has chosen today to guillotine this debate and to bring it to a close. In effect, this legislation proposes to make it unlawful for the Government of the day to appoint anybody to any judicial office unless that person has been shortlisted by a group of eight people, four of whom are judges and four of whom are...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Committee Work Programme (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister of State and offer our apology for delaying him. I will just make one point because I have to be elsewhere. We are very anxious the terms of reference of the committee should be fully respected and that draft statutory instruments should be made available to us. When we use the term “draft statutory instruments”, we do not want somebody saying there is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: Dr. Visoka is very welcome. A number of things occur to me arising out of this morning's proceedings. First, hanging over the whole discussion is that it is almost impossible to see how much progress can be made on any of these fronts as long as the Ukraine war is going on because it is unfinished business. It is one in which Putin is advancing his agenda. If his agenda succeeds, people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: It has to be simultaneous.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: I thank Dr. Visoka.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: Chairman, could I ask one question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: Is it possible to have a differential approach to recently admitted candidates to say they cannot block for five years or ten years, and to give them second-class status, as it were, for five years so that the unanimity rule does not apply? Is that possible?

Seanad: Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009: Motions (27 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: I support the motion. I have some sympathy with the Sinn Féin amendment but I think it will take longer than 12 months to get all the ducks in a row to do what is necessary. On the question as to whether further or different legislation is necessary, I want to say that the whole concept of scheduled offences is, and always has been, a slightly dubious one. The relevant provision of...

Seanad: Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009: Motions (27 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: It is the opposite. Any case can be sent to the Special Criminal Court.

Seanad: Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009: Motions (27 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: Yes, and scheduled offences are therefore automatically sent, unless the DPP rules otherwise.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Department of Justice (20 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their statements and submissions. A number of issues need to be much more carefully examined. I was Minister for Justice when the Defamation Act was drafted as it now is. Section 26 has turned out to be a damp squib. So many safeguards were put into it from the defendant's point of view that it became almost like the Grand National - if you got...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Department of Justice (20 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: Without reversing the onus of proof, at least one could make it compulsory that the plaintiff does testify at some point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Department of Justice (20 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: You cannot have somebody say: "I know I stole €50,000 but they will never prove it and I am not getting into the witness box".

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Department of Justice (20 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: It was the Reynolds case that gave rise to it.