Results 5,741-5,760 of 11,719 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: That is positive and I am delighted to hear that. I understood that he said he will consider amendment No. 7 for acceptance.In the spirit of being constructive, I am happy to withdraw the amendment and resubmit it on Report Stage. I do not accept the terms of the amendment would tie the hands of the Public Appointments Service. I know in the other House my Labour Party colleagues,...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I will. I thank the Minister.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: The substantive amendment I have in this grouping is amendment No. 14 which is similar to that of Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee, amendment No. 13, in that it seeks to address the question of the composition of the judicial appointments commission. Our amendment is slightly different from the Senator's. Like hers, it has the advantage of being coherent in terms of numbers, unlike the current...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I want to respond to the point the Minister made about the Attorney General. It is interesting that section 10 provides that the Attorney General will be one of the members of the commission. If amendments Nos. 15 and 21, in the Minister's name are made, the commission will comprise 17 persons. The reason the Attorney General referred to it as a dog's dinner is clear; the way in which the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: It is instructive to have an insight from someone who has served as Attorney General on JAAB. Senator McDowell brings that experience, which none of us have, to bear and it is useful to hear him speak of the presumed rationale behind the reinsertion of the Attorney General onto the new commission. I simply observed that it seemed somewhat anomalous that the Attorney General remains on the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Yes, they are contingent.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 14:In page 10, lines 20 to 31, to delete all words from and including “(1) The Commission” in line 20 down to and including line 31, and in page 11, to delete lines 1 to 3 and substitute the following: “(1) The Commission shall consist of 12 members being— (a) the Chief Justice, who shall be the Chairperson of the Commission, (b) the...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that we would not take Committee Stage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 today. On behalf of the Labour Party group, I seek to put forward again the position that Senator Humphreys and myself put forward last Thursday that Committee Stage of the Bill should not be taken until we have sight of the as yet unpublished report that...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: The approach has made a mockery of the legislative process. We are being asked to legislate in the dark without sight of a report, significant excerpts of which have already been leaked into the public domain. I want to refer colleagues who may as yet be undecided as to what way they will vote on our amendment to four points that were raised in the GRECO report. First, GRECO expressed the...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: -----to respond to these very serious criticisms-----

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: -----by the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption, GRECO. Finally, I agree with Senator Boyhan that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport would be the first person to jump up and down in disgust if a Government, of which he was not part, tried to bring about much-needed reform in this extremely misguided and ill-conceived way. I urge colleagues to support my...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Yes.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Under Standing Order 62(3)(b) I request that the division be taken again other than by electronic means.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I wish to speak on amendment No. 5, the Labour Party's amendment in the grouping. It is a more technical amendment, simply offering a definition of a person who is employed in the service of the State. It specifies that a person is employed in the service of the State if he or she is a member of the Garda or the Defence Forces, or a civil servant. I support Senator Ruane's amendment No. 3....

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: First, I agree with my colleague, Senator McDowell, on the issue of the GRECO report. Without going back over the issue in great detail, as somebody who has taken a good deal of care in drafting 20 amendments on Committee Stage, it is frustrating to have had to do so without sight of the report, quite apart from the fact that we do not know whether the Government is taking into account the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I am a legal academic who has practised in the past 15 years. However, it is not for my own personal reasons I am making this point. The 15-year clause is unfeasibly long. I do not see why it needs to be that long in order to qualify as a lay person, particularly given Senator McDowell's point about legal academics who have not practised but who would be capable of being considered to be...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: It is extraordinary that the Minister has said he has not yet seen the report, yet he appears to know what is in it. He is going to be seeking Government clearance to publish it at the earliest opportunity. We are in the middle of Committee Stage in the Seanad, dealing with amendments that are directly pertinent to the critiques in the report, apparently. Some of us have seen what are...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I have a copy of what purports to be three pages of the GRECO report in my hand, and it seems to be very up to date. Paragraph 35 of it states that GRECO has significant concerns about the composition of an appointments commission as proposed in the judicial appointments Bill, as amended, on 31 May 2018, which would place judges in a clear minority position in favour of a strong lay...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Jun 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I join Senator Warfield in wishing everyone a happy Pride in the week that is in it and commend him on his work on conversion therapy. I second the motion put forward by my colleague, Senator Humphreys, seeking to adjourn Committee Stage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill and providing that the Seanad will not take Committee Stage until we have received and considered the...