Results 1,061-1,080 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (4 Jun 2021)

Michael McDowell: The Minister has not told us-----

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (4 Jun 2021)

Michael McDowell: I am not going to hog the time but one can go back to the maps that were shown of outbreaks of Covid. Outbreaks that were six months old were still appearing as clusters on those maps. There have been all sorts of problems and it is not good enough to say, "Here is my Bill; these are my regulations. Give me the powers. Do it my way or face the accusation of being reckless."

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (4 Jun 2021)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the action of the Government in, at least, facing up to the proposition that it was not going to make this an open-ended emergency in the way that it was-----

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (4 Jun 2021)

Michael McDowell: If Senator Ward wants to make an intervention during my speech, he is perfectly welcome to do so, but he will only lengthen the matter. I am about-----

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (4 Jun 2021)

Michael McDowell: Who, may I ask, set an hour for this matter? Who set the guillotine in the Dáil? Who did any of that? All of the Government Senators sheepishly support these guillotine measures.We could have had a vote on the ordering of the business for today and eroded more time. It is about time that the guillotine stopped falling on important measures that affect everybody's daily routine. Most...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (24 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House and I endorse the remarks made around the House on his personal achievements as Minister. He has not, as Senator Ward said, been there for years. He has been there for less than a year and during that year he has had a torrid time. Cowardly keyboard warriors have used anonymity in the most vile campaign of abuse against him and I totally dissociate...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (24 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: Were they doing any harm?

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 4a: In page 11, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: “7.(1) The court of trial may permit any witness to be cross-examined in relation to evidence given by that witness in the course of any preliminary trial hearing where the court is satisfied that it would be in the interests of justice to do so. (2) The court of trial may permit evidence of...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I understand the point that Senator Ward and the Minister of State are making. What I was worried about, and perhaps I did not express this adequately, is that section 6(14) states that a determination of a point at a preliminary trial hearing shall have binding effect. It is all very well to say that a statement is going to be admissible or inadmissible but if that were interpreted as...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 4b: In page 11, to delete lines 18 to 25 and substitute the following: “(2) An appeal referred to in this section shall only lie where it is contended by the prosecution that the relevant order made by the trial court erroneously excluded evidence which is— (a) reliable, (b) of significant probative value, and (c) such that when taken together with...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: This is a technical amendment. I ask the Minister of State to consider it. The appeal provision in section 7(2) states an appeal referred to in this section shall lie only where the relevant order concerned made by the trial court erroneously excluded evidence which is reliable and such that when taken together with the other relevant evidence would be of significant probative value in the...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: If I may say so, Senator Ward is too easily persuaded by the Minister of State. An appeal, referred to in this section, shall lie only in certain circumstances. It seems to me that what is really intended is that it shall succeed only if it is established that it is erroneous that it excluded evidence that was reliable, had significant probative value, and when taken with the other evidence...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 5: In page 11, line 19, to delete “erroneously”.

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I do not follow this at all. Amendment No. 5a was to make sure that the Court of Appeal can "allow, quash or vary the order under appeal." It is not predetermined by any previous decision. It is to allow the Court of Appeal to vary an order. This is hugely important. At the moment there is a binary provision in the Act that it either allows the appeal or quashes the order under appeal.It...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I am supportive of what Senator Ward is attempting to achieve. I do not know whether the particular mechanism by which he is proposing it should be done is the correct one. It may be of interest to him to know that when I was Minister for Justice, the exact same point occurred to me. Rather than seeking to cut across the Judges' rules, I asked the Chief Justice at the time to look at the...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I support Senator Ward's amendment. This unnecessary provision to start giving juries prosecution or defence counsel speeches undermines their oath, which is to consider the evidence rather than the arguments that are put before them and to confine themselves to their judgment of the evidence. The other thing I am slightly worried about, and which I raised on the last occasion on which this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2020: Discussion (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I thank the witnesses for their presentations, which I found very interesting. One problem that I have with the scheme of the Bill that is now before us is, curiously, one which caused a problem with the previous Bill, that is the membership of the commission. It seems to be a body corporate consisting of nine people, but one of those nine people is a kind of rotational person. I cannot...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2020: Discussion (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: That comes as a surprise to me. I thought Head 9(3) was to say that the barrister or solicitor it chose had to be qualified to have been a judge at the time of appointment, in other words, to have ten years' practice. I agree with Ms Keane that it is loosely worded. It could carry the meaning that she is supposing-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2020: Discussion (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: It is the requisite number of years standing at the time of appointment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2020: Discussion (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I do not know which they are driving at. It would be very frightening if it was all former judges, I must say.