Results 801-820 of 1,683 for speaker:Derek McDowell

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: What sort of assessment does the Minister of State have in mind?

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: Is the Minister of State referring to an assessment of such bodies' existing capacity or an assessment of whether they need to be included within the provisions of this Bill? Are there criteria for this assessment or does it simply constitute a report in response to a request?

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: I think I understand that.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: I am interested in the reprimand from the Parliamentary Counsel about the code of practice. The Bill does not define "declaration of interest". The phrase is allowed stand but it is also a vogue term in terms of recent——

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: It may be defined in the Standards in Public Office Act 2000 but it is not defined in this legislation. The amendment is sensible. It is appropriate that, since these individuals will be holding public offices, their declarations of interest should be made to the commission and, on that basis, I support the amendment. When the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995 was going through the Oireachtas,...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: The section sets out standards of disclosure in regard to particular decisions by the commissioners. Are the consequences of failure to disclose set out elsewhere in the legislation? Is there a penalty? Could a decision be rendered invalid? What are the consequences if a commissioner does not disclose an interest in a decision?

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: If a commissioner fails to disclose an interest in property or in a company, does the Bill set out the consequences of such a failure? Is it a prosecutable offence? Would it invalidate the decisions taken?

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: No explicit sanction is provided. There would not be an invalidation of a decision to which the individual was party. For example, if somebody was awarded a contract in circumstances where there was a failure to disclose an interest, the contract would still be valid and, theoretically, the commissioner could remain in the post. He or she would be under pressure to resign but the decision...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: I do not intend to labour the issue but our companies legislation, for example, is full of lists of proper procedure, things which must be done, but we fail to provide sanctions if those things are not done. There is a certain lack of clarity as to the consequences of failure to comply. While I accept that this is unlikely to happen very often, and ideally it would not happen at all, it is...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: Does this give carte blanche to the commission to set criteria for particular appointments to the Civil Service or are they already covered in regulations? I assume existing regulations covering the membership of political parties among civil servants carry over and that the commission is not being invested with discretion to change those regulations. Is that right? It seems to give wide...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: Different regulations govern the way the Civil Service behaves. One regulation requires civil servants beyond a certain level not to be members of political parties and some, I understand, are required to submit to the Official Secrets Act. Is the commission being invested with powers here to change those regulations and the conditions of employment of civil servants? Can it do that by virtue...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: Are they being incorporated into the codes of practice?

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Derek McDowell: This is an interesting amendment. I have taken an interest in this subject over the years and wonder whether the Minister of State can update us as to where we are. I know where the long-standing talks with the trade union representing trade unions stand and to what extent we have moved towards performance management within the Civil Service, as higher civil servants have had a system in...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (30 Jun 2004)

Derek McDowell: I broadly welcome this Bill, though with reservations. Senator Higgins noted that the Minister of State's speech does not explicitly refer to decentralisation. It is interesting that his speech in the Dáil did so, at least initially. He has kicked off a lengthy debate about decentralisation in the other House which he wants to avoid in this House. He has not managed to succeed in that so far...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (30 Jun 2004)

Derek McDowell: People do not choose to go to many of the 53 towns and villages listed by the Minister of State so the Government has decided as a matter of policy to relocate civil servants to these places to get more votes. While I understand why it is doing so, I am deeply opposed to it. As a Dubliner, I have no hesitation saying I understand why people like living here. I do not think there is anything...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (30 Jun 2004)

Derek McDowell: For the moment, I would like to be non-specific about the God awful places. If there is a recruitment agency in Gort, Claremorris or wherever, working to a licence holder which may be in Galway or Dublin and which has a code of practice set by the central agency, there are several different layers which do not give me the certainly I currently have, and which all of us share, that the system...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (30 Jun 2004)

Derek McDowell: The Senator betrays his rural origins. Once from the country, always from the country.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (30 Jun 2004)

Derek McDowell: I would go to Dingle myself.

Seanad: Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Compellability, Privileges and Immunities of Witnesses) (Amendment) Bill 2004: Second Stage. (27 May 2004)

Derek McDowell: I welcome the Aire Stáit to the House. I will start where Senator O'Toole finished, on the subject of the whole business of making it up as one goes along. We all acknowledge that there is of necessity a certain ad hoc air about this. It strikes me we are just looking around the next corner rather than trying to look around a few corners at a time. In essence, we are doing today what we have...

Seanad: Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Compellability, Privileges and Immunities of Witnesses) (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages. (27 May 2004)

Derek McDowell: Arising from the Minister of State's concluding comments on Second Stage, will she take me through the self-incrimination argument again? It is accepted, and is obviously a matter of law under the 1997 Act, that anything said during the course of the process cannot be used in the courts to sustain a criminal trial or anything of that kind. Surely, however, self-incrimination also applies to...