Results 9,421-9,440 of 18,729 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I will do so. I am speaking on amendment No. 38 but I will also discuss amendments Nos. 39 and 403. During the Committee Stage debate I indicated I was considering bringing forward an amendment to address the issue that arose in the aftermath of the murder of Donna Cleary which was an appalling event of recent times. The House will recall that the continued detention of a suspect in that case...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 39: In page 23, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: "(ii) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (7): "(7A) Notwithstanding subsections (2) and (7), if— (a) an application is made under subsection (2) for a warrant authorising the detention for a further period of a person detained under that subsection, and (b) the period of...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I am sympathetic to the general principle of what the Deputy has mentioned. Nearly everybody in this House has had the experience of being interviewed by a journalist and being told that they have to come back again because the interview has collapsed as the tape recorder was not working. That has happened to me on a number of occasions in the lifetime of this Dáil.

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: These things just happen. That is the way things are. The Judiciary is moving to the point that Deputy Howlin wants to be recognised in his amendment. I am happy that this is the case. I am not in any way worried by the fact the Judiciary is pressing for a general rule of recording where it is appropriate. I am not against that at all but I will give the Deputy this reasonable example. A...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: That is a matter for the judge to decide.

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: The many good legal advisers available to the Deputy will tell him that we have already arrived virtually at that point in regard to established jurisprudence by the courts. I do not want to impose an absolute and inflexible rule where the courts themselves have not gone that far. I appreciate the Deputy's point and have great sympathy with his argument that gardaí should realise there is no...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I do not propose to accept these amendments. In regard to amendment No. 42, the phrase "as soon as practicable" has a legal sense. The Judiciary knows what is meant by it and will apply it sensibly in individual cases. A 12-hour limit may not be as soon as practicable in some cases and may be more than is practicable in some extreme cases. It does not add much to the provision to impose a...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 44: In page 25, to delete lines 10 to 13, and substitute the following: "six months", (ii) by the substitution of the following subsections for subsection (3): "(3) Where proceedings have been so instituted and— (a) the person is acquitted, (b) the charge against the person in respect of the offence concerned is dismissed under section 4E of the Criminal Procedure Act...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: The ingenuity of defence lawyers never ceases to amaze me.

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 45: In page 26, to delete lines 25 to 27 and substitute the following: "(b) in section 4— (i) in subsection (2), by the substitution of "within twelve months from the taking of the sample" for "within six months from the taking of the sample", and (ii) by the substitution of the following subsections for subsection (3): "(3) Where proceedings have been so instituted...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: While I accept what the Deputy says about the concerns of the Human Rights Commission, there are more than the accused's human rights to be concerned with. The human rights, for instance, of victims of child sexual abuse and serious assault and the relatives of victims of homicides must be taken into account, as well as the human right of the rest of the community to have an effective system...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: What have the religious beliefs of an accused person to do with whether he or she should give DNA?

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: Is one to have an inquiry into the accused's religious beliefs?

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I have no problem with people raising issues brought up by the Human Rights Commission. However, where tendentious remarks are put into the public domain to the effect that something may be an infringement of international or domestic human rights provisions, I would much prefer them to say that they believed it to be such. When they come down on one or other side of the equation, I am more...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: If the Human Rights Commission is of the solid belief that something infringes human rights, let it say so. If it does not believe that, let it state so too. The notion that something may infringe human rights is made public, and we are left to deal with it, which is unsatisfactory. If it reaches the opinion that something might be an infringement but that on balance it agrees with the...

Criminal Justice Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed). (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: Let us leave them all together.

Criminal Law (Home Defence) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: The Bill proposes that where a householder uses force to repel or prevent trespass on the house or surrounding areas by persons who appear to be intent on committing a serious criminal offence, the entitlement to use justified force shall not be judged by reference to the opportunity to retreat. I have considerable sympathy for the proposition that the obligation to retreat within one's house...

Criminal Law (Home Defence) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: It will probably agree with me that in the drafting of the Bill, children fall within the definition of "trespassers". Therefore, adults would be allowed to use any force in beating a child trespasser out of their house.

Criminal Law (Home Defence) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: No matter how brutal or savage the force unleashed, any injury perpetrated on that child could not be the subject of a civil action because the child was a trespasser. Is that reasonable or fair? I say it is not. Instead of disregarding Senator Morrissey's Bill, Fine Gael would have been wiser to adopt it. It could have embarrassed me more by taking the Senator's reasonable text and tabling...

Criminal Law (Home Defence) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (27 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: No. I assisted Senator Morrissey with that Bill just as I assisted——