Results 9,981-10,000 of 18,729 for speaker:Michael McDowell

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

Michael McDowell: The Deputy is shorter than me.

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

Michael McDowell: Then the Deputy's Bill is unlawful.

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

Michael McDowell: I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

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

Michael McDowell: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." When, last Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1935 was inconsistent with the Constitution and was not brought forward into law in 1937, an unprecedented and extremely complex set of issues was thrown up for the three arms of constitutional government, the Executive, Legislature and...

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

Michael McDowell: I will get it for the Deputy as soon as possible.

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

Michael McDowell: Young girls who are victims of sexual predators will be challenged on their clothes, make-up and sobriety, on their presence at pubs, discos and other venues for adults, on what they said, how they appeared and acted, on what they pretended or boasted about their past and about their experience. On all these issues their truthfulness and credibility will be rigorously tested by skilled...

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

Michael McDowell: In those 16 years there has been a succession of legislative measures dealing with reform of the criminal law on sexual matters, of the law relating to children and of the law relating to sexual abuse. No Member of either House of the Oireachtas has ever tabled an amendment to any of those pieces of legislation along the lines recommended by the Law Reform Commission, and for good reason....

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

Michael McDowell: They also include Nora Owen, who sat in this seat for a number of years, and the Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, who occupied the same position and published——

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

Michael McDowell: The Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, published a discussion paper——

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

Michael McDowell: I appeal to you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, to maintain order.

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

Michael McDowell: The Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, published a discussion paper on this matter and elicited the views of the public, only a small fraction of whom supported change in this matter.

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

Michael McDowell: The reason for all this is the policy of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has consistently been not to make such a change for the very reasons I have outlined. Some Deputies who have spoken with passion in this House on these matters in recent times have sat at the Cabinet table while that policy position of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform was maintained...

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

Michael McDowell: It has been suggested that warning signs that the law was unconstitutional were ignored. The Law Reform Commission never gave that warning. The law in question has been considered in its operation by every court in the land, right up to the Supreme Court, regularly and exhaustively. The X case is one of many examples of this. In the past ten years, there have been at least 25 cases where the...

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

Michael McDowell: It has been suggested that if the Government had acted differently, the risk of perpetrators being released on foot of the CC judgment could have been avoided. That is another black lie.

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

Michael McDowell: The Government and I are doing all we can to ensure that the CC judgment does not unlock the gates for convicted perpetrators of heinous crimes. We are mounting a case in the Supreme Court in which we are making the case that justice and common sense and the constitutional values that protect the victim, society and the criminal justice system, and maintain certainty in the criminal law, must...

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

Michael McDowell: As the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I knew immediately that this decision could have extreme consequences involving possible premature release from prison——

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

Michael McDowell: ——of those who had committed vile crimes against defenceless children, many of them of very tender years. I am as well placed as most Members to say that the crimes against these victims cry to heaven for justice. While the absence of the "honest mistake" defence in cases of this nature has always been recognised as a rigorous application of law, it went unchallenged in our superior...

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

Michael McDowell: Therefore, I explored the legal option with the Attorney General very carefully.

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

Michael McDowell: As my colleague, Deputy Brian Lenihan, pointed out yesterday on "Today with Pat Kenny", such a comprehensive declaration of the unconstitutionality of a criminal statute by the Supreme Court is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, in this country's history as an independent State. The first criminal case that was affected involved one of the appellants to the Supreme Court itself. That...

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

Michael McDowell: I have conferred——