Results 41-60 of 577 for land speaker:Michael McDowell

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Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (23 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: The Land Development Agency Bill has not yet been seen in these Houses. It is a matter of considerable worry to many that this body is claimed to have been established even though the legislation for its existence has not yet been passed. As I travel through this city every day, I see student residence buildings running up rapidly all around. I see hotels being built everywhere. I have no...

Seanad: Budget 2020: Statements (8 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...for the provision of housing in the past. Part of the problem is that county chief executives and managers do not have an appetite to purchase social housing. As part of the Thornton Hall development, we sold land in Shanganagh in south County Dublin to private developers and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for housing, and spent €30 million on buying Thornton Hall at a...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: .... The proposal was that Dublin Port should be removed from its current location to Bremore in north County Dublin. A high-rise redevelopment of the centre of the city would then take place on the lands vacated by the port. I mention this because I notice in today's newspapers that there is a reference to Dublin City Council adopting a plan to have buildings of up to 25 storeys in what...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (30 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: Part of the character of the Phoenix Park is that a lot of the land is unused or underused, creating its own attractions. There are places where deer can go, far away from funicular railways and such things.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (30 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: The zoo has not sprawled all over the park but has expanded into lands beside Áras an Uachtaráin. The magazine fort, which I walked around on one occasion when it was carelessly left open, is decaying completely in front of our eyes but it could be a military museum or something like that. Allowing it to degrade any further would be a big mistake.As somebody who loves the Phoenix...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (22 May 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...bona fide reason we do not want people masquerading as universities, or simply setting up limited liability companies and purporting to be a university. That would be wrong. Nor do we want people landing in Ireland from other jurisdictions and claiming to be a university institution in Ireland over which effectively there is no standard or control as to the activities of such an...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...of those courts to participate in it. This is not a question. One cannot become a member of the High Court unless one is ex officiosuitable to serve on the Supreme Court. That is the law of the land as things stand and as they will stand in future. One may not be a pavilion member of the High Court, that one is just scraping in and that one is in a category of people whom the Chief...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (3 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: -----to demand movement on this area. I seek clarification and reassurance that this is not happening now. In today's newspapers there is an account of a Fáilte Ireland spokesperson saying that we need a 1,000-bed hotel in Dublin for conferences and that we are missing out because the city does not have a mega hotel of that kind. I am sure that is correct but I wish to make a wider...

Seanad: Judicial Council Bill 2017: Committee Stage (2 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...move towards having a drug free prison, something Mountjoy Prison simply cannot do. Those who condemned the Thornton Hall project should remember that at the time the Government sold 30 acres of land at Shanganagh Castle. It sold part of it for private development and part of it to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for public housing. I note in the papers that although this...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...that it is not impressed by them? If this is not possible it underlines what I am saying about the onslaught on the Executive's discretion. If the Government cannot understand the true lie of the land in making its constitutional decision and have a 100% accurate picture of who is consistently being put forward on a shortlist and who is not, and if it cannot ask why the people who are...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...by legal insiders in the Seanad has come up with an ingenious new delaying ruse. They will appeal to the judiciary itself to make independent judgments on the very system of political appointment that landed them in their current positions. Wow. I will stop there and I presume that was a reference to a suggestion on my part that the constitutional issues in this Bill would be well...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...or would not be appropriate. I refer to the suggestion, therefore, that a "new ruse" was to:Appeal to the judiciary to make independent judgements on the very system of political appointment that landed them in their current positions. Wow. That was a disgraceful remark for any Minister in the Cabinet to make about the Article 26 reference process. It is disgraceful in many respects...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...appointments to which this legislation would apply on 36 occasions. That was under the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board system. Some 36 appointments have been made to every court in the land-----

Seanad: Conflict in Yemen: Motion (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...in Middle Eastern affairs, there are three very good books, one being "The Ottoman Twilight", and the other two written by James Barr, one of which deals with what happened in the northern Arab lands between Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq, and the other, published recently, is "Lords of the Desert", which describes the Anglo-American involvement in the Arabian...

Seanad: Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (5 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...something and that this Chamber of the Irish Parliament is determined to make it clear that international law cannot be flouted with impunity. We are not obliged to accept de facto annexation of land in a manner that infringes international law.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...is supposed to look at suitability on grounds of character, temperament, competence, probity and suitability on grounds of health, is not to do this for the three most senior appointments in the land. I cannot understand how that could possibly make sense. I do not understand why we have this multiplicity of chapters and apply bits and bobs of chapters here and there. We will have the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...to why this should be done. I am against this section. It no longer makes any sense at all. It is ridiculous that we should now be putting in legislation that the three highest presidencies in the land will be filled without regard to the criteria set out in paragraphs (b) and (c) of section 36.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...an appropriate knowledge of the decisions, and an appropriate knowledge and appropriate experience of the practice and procedure, of the Supreme Court and the High Court". That is still the law of the land and will stand to be repealed by this statute because the JAAB provisions will be swept away. That provision was designed to ensure that while someone could be a practising barrister...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: ..., who enjoys a right of way over a property or who applied for a right of way over a property. Maybe there is confidential information in what used to be the registry of deeds and processes in the land registry and is now part of the Property Registration Authority. Maybe there is some terrible secret down there, but I cannot imagine it, whereas I do not need an imagination to see that...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Oct 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...not solve this problem if left to itself in the short, medium or long term. Fourth, the Government has had plenty of time to consider all of the underlying trends and issues such as market and land availability issues and has not done its duty by the people and addressed this issue properly. It is very evident to anybody who travels around this city that the cranes are on the skylines....