Results 9,941-9,960 of 18,729 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: Questions have been asked about section 5. The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General conferred on the Bill. The gist of the DPP's strong view was that it was all very well from the point of view of political correctness to have gender neutrality, but that if we did not make special provision for young females it would result in substantial ongoing injustice in that young...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I will not take responsibility for criminalising for the first time in the history of the State a young girl for being a mother.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: If I had taken the advice of two political parties, which was to reinstate the law as it was, the boy would commit an offence and the girl would not.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I do not know what amendments are being produced. As far as the Government is concerned, we have inserted a counter-balancing measure, which provides that the DPP must consent to a prosecution of a boy of that age. The DPP, considering the preamble to the Constitution about justice and charity, will not, in those circumstances and using his common law discretion, prosecute the boy where he...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I did not say that.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: The Attorney General consulted the DPP, who warned against having a strictly gender neutral approach to this and warned of the consequences——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I formulated section 5 at a meeting of Government. The notion that Fianna Fáil members went into a room and came back with the section is a falsehood. The Deputy can believe it all he likes but it did not happen. It has been suggested that instead of decriminalising all teenage sex, lesser penalties should be provided. A District Court fine of, say, €1,000 has been mentioned.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy may think it is nonsense but I have heard this suggested.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: Does the Deputy want to know? I will not comment further. I am being honourable and truthful and I am sticking to my undertakings. If the Deputies asked their party colleagues, they would shut them up rapidly.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: Not so.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: That is not correct.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: I know Deputy Howlin is wrong on that.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: We are back to Frank Connolly.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: When the dust settles, issues not raised until this morning in the media as to why the Law Reform Commission proposal was not adopted, the downside, the additional suffering for young children going through the courts process, the additional stress on people coming up to court cases and the fact that many people will be dissuaded from making a complaint will be live issues in the courtroom...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: When that truth is widely understood, it will be accepted that successive Ministers for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and successive Governments, including Members who are on the other side of the House, made the right decision in regard to this issue.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: It was only when the Supreme Court laid down that we could not continue to protect children by reference to their age——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: ——unless we also made them subject to cross-examination on these issues, it was only when we were pushed to that point that we agreed to change the law to allow for what will be a measure which has negative consequences for the protection of children in society.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: Let no one in the House think that the measures we are taking today are an unalloyed improvement in the lot of children. Let no one in this House believe that this will make the protection of children easier or the lot of abused children in the criminal justice process or in the courtroom context, any less agonising. On the contrary, it will make it significantly more unpleasant for those...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: If, at the end, the price of protecting children by reference to their age is that we have to introduce after 16 years of resisting such a proposal, a measure of this kind to allow perpetrators to cross-examine children through their lawyers in court on the issues I have mentioned, we will do it.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Michael McDowell: The public has been asked to believe the falsehood that there was no good reason why this reform was not made, that it was an obvious reform, that it is in the interests of victims of crime, that it is something which was self-evidently a change that should be brought about, those people will learn over the next few days——