Results 101-120 of 18,613 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Health (Scoliosis Treatment Services) Bill 2024: Second Stage (3 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." This Bill is brought about with the aim of achieving accountability and performance and by reason of a crisis that has emerged regarding the provision of surgery for scoliosis victims in the State. There are other people with spinal conditions, such as spina bifida and others, which are also similar in the problems and challenges the...

Seanad: Health (Scoliosis Treatment Services) Bill 2024: Second Stage (3 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I very much welcome the tone and content of the Minister's remarks. I did not come here to grandstand. I did not come here to exaggerate or exploit the obviously difficult situation that has arisen in respect of scoliosis and allied spinal conditions. The Minister has frankly admitted to this House that he asked the HSE and CHI how much money they needed and they said €19 million....

Seanad: Health (Scoliosis Treatment Services) Bill 2024: Second Stage (3 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: Next Tuesday, with the agreement of the Whip.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I second the amendment proposed by Senator Keogan on the Order of Business. Whereas I do not share many of the views expressed in this House on in vitro fertilisation and some aspects of surrogacy that some of the people in my group hold, it is important that we have a constructive debate. There should be no emotion, just simple discussion, because there are serious issues involved. I...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Second Stage (25 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I propose to share my time with Senator Craughwell, if that is agreeable to the House. I will speak for eight minutes and he for two. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I welcome this legislation. It is kind of a mixed-goods wagon in railway parlance. I accept the proposition that the Title looks a bit clunky but the Bills Office would insist the Title has to reflect the...

Seanad: Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009: Motions (25 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I support the two resolutions and it would be a mistake at this time to allow either set of legislative provisions to lapse. The Minister of State's speech makes reference to the attempted murder of an RUC officer and the finding of improvised explosives devices in Ravensdale, County Louth, in recent times. There is in our society a movement that still believes it is somehow part of the...

Seanad: Charities (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (25 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister of State. I am glad the law in respect of charities is the subject of updating legislation. I have a couple of problems I would ask the Minister of State to consider. On the provisions of sections 3 and 4, as I see it, the effect of these sections is to establish new definitions of charitable purposes for the purposes of the Charities Act. The introduction of the...

Seanad: International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Motion (19 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I do not suffer from xenophobia, racist thoughts or racist impulses of any kind whatsoever. However, I am opposed to our ratification of this pact for a number of rational reasons that depend, at the outset, on an examination of how we got here. If we go back to the end of 1999, at Tampere in Finland, conclusions of an EU Council meeting included a commitment by member states to a number of...

Seanad: International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Motion (19 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: No.

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 1: In page 9, line 20, after “days” to insert “not earlier than 30th June 2025 as may be specified by resolution adopted by Dáil Éireann”. I move this amendment in my name and that of the other Senators. This amendment is solely for one purpose, namely to make an appeal to the Minister to create sufficient time to allow the...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: Arising out of the Minister’s remarks, nobody serious has said the Fagan-Kenny approach is defective or pointed out some defect in it. They have all said it is interesting, it could be so and perhaps it would yield greater results. Nobody has said the reason it is wrong or the reason we should avoid it. The only argument I have heard offered against its adoption is that it has not...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Minister for her response and I acknowledge the response of my fellow Senators. In view of that response, I seek the freedom of the House to withdraw my amendment.

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (18 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister of State to the House and acknowledge the presence of the Tánaiste earlier in the debate. As Senator Horkan stated, there are some serious matters in this Bill that need to be addressed. I will come back to them in a moment, but to put the Bill in context, it is being put before the House at a time when the Defence Forces are crippled by at least a decade of...

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (18 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: Section 11 provides for the insertion of the following as part of a new section 1A in the principal Act: Without prejudice to the Defence (Amendment) Act 1990 and any regulations made thereunder, a member of the Permanent Defence Force shall not- (a) while in uniform or otherwise making himself or herself identifiable as a member of the Permanent Defence Force- (i)make, without prior...

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (18 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: However, I can well imagine that this lacuna would allow Independent candidates for Dáil Éireann to have Defence Forces members supporting them. The provision is badly drafted. I certainly will support a Government amendment to close the lacuna it creates.

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (18 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: Someone would have to go to Limerick now, I take it.

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Consideration of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments (18 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: First, I identify with your words, Chair, to the Minister on this day. I thank him for many decades of public service, which I know are not yet quite finished. The sacrifice that is made in terms of personal life and family life of such a long record of service is very substantial indeed. I want to put on record that the country as a whole should be grateful to the Minister for the...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Consideration of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments (18 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: I appreciate that but given the Attorney General's office stated in March 2021 that primary legislation was needed, is there any particular reason that three and a bit years later we are still stuck where we are?

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Consideration of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments (18 Jun 2024)

Michael McDowell: To go back to the Minister's remarks directed to Senator Daly, do I understand it that the Department has no problem with the draft statutory instrument it sends to the Office of the Attorney General for refinement and transposition into its final form being shown to the committee but the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel is the body objecting to its work-----