Results 1,241-1,260 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Act 2020: Motion (6 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I will be supporting the amendment, which has been tendered to this motion, to extend the legislation only to a date in February. I do so because I think it is important for this House, and Dáil Éireann for that matter, to keep the Government accountable and keep all of the emergency measures under constant review and that we do not find ourselves effectively being run by...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Act 2020: Motion (6 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I second the amendment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: EU Response to Covid-19: Discussion (28 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: My questions are for both of our guests, whom I thank for their presentations and attendance. The Commission stated yesterday that universal vaccination may not be available until 2022. Why is this? Perhaps Mr. Kiely will explain. Is it that the Commission foresees supply constraints or is it just less optimistic about the speed of development and authorisation, based on safety...

Seanad: Railway Safety (Reporting and Investigation of Serious Accidents, Accidents and Incidents Involving Certain Railways) Bill 2020: Second Stage (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister and congratulate him on his appointment. I have not had the opportunity to do that. This Bill is a technical one and deserves the support of the entire House. Two points occur to me. On cross-Border railway operations post-Brexit, will there be special arrangements for the extension of these EU powers or will this have any implications for that? I would like to...

Seanad: Railway Safety (Reporting and Investigation of Serious Accidents, Accidents and Incidents Involving Certain Railways) Bill 2020: Second Stage (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: I was just warning the Cathaoirleach that I was about to do it. I ask the Minister to look at the problems for emergency workers which are now being caused by the additional restriction of spaces on public transport at the moment and the hardship that is causing to nurses and people going to work. Is it really necessary as part of level 5 that the number of people able to travel on a bus is...

Seanad: Railway Safety (Reporting and Investigation of Serious Accidents, Accidents and Incidents Involving Certain Railways) Bill 2020: Second Stage (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: It is unfortunate.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies Bill 2020: Second Stage (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House. I agree with him that in the present situation, it is important that people should not be evicted in circumstances that are brought upon them by the pandemic or which make it difficult for them to secure alternative accommodation in the course of the crisis. If this involves the abridgement of landlords' rights to some extent, then, as the Minister...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister back to the House. I acknowledge his prefatory remarks on what he believes now to have been an erroneous approach of an over-legalistic kind to the legislation. It is not up to me to accept apologies but I think that the Minister is sincere in saying he underestimated the reaction this legislation appears to have had in the minds of many, portrayed as it was as an...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: The aim of invoking the workings of either the present commission or future commissions is immaterial as grounds for withholding information or not applying GDPR. In my view, GDPR qualifies and makes conditional both the National Archives Act, to some extent, and the 2004 Act because the provisions of those Acts have to be interpreted in a GDPR-compliant way, even though the GDPR makes...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: It is very unsatisfactory in such a situation, where one wants to extend the life of a commission with a view to creating more time, to be told that because it might cost the Exchequer some money we cannot even discuss the idea or raise the issue on the floor of the House. Senator Norris has been very strong on modifying that rule and it would require an interaction between the Dáil and...

Seanad: Health (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: First, I must protest that this legislation has been rushed through without adequate debate. There is no excuse for a situation where Dáil Éireann is considering a Bill in the morning and it comes to us in the afternoon especially when this Bill is badly drafted. I draw the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan’s attention to one or two aspects of this Bill which he may regret...

Seanad: Health (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: Section 1 is the definition section of the Bill. One might expect that care would have been taken to provide proper definitions in section 1, rather than ignore a real problem with the Bill. I pointed out to the Minister that in the last Seanad we had a Bill that had left Dáil Éireann in a shambles and arrived up in the Seanad. It was called by a certain person a "dog's dinner"...

Seanad: Health (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: Is it not the case that, according to the Order of Business, the question is to be put at 8 p.m.?

Seanad: Health (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: Section 6D, which is to be inserted into the 1947 Act by this section of the proposed Bill, allows the Minister to make regulations "prescribing such one or more penal provisions as are specified in the regulations to be dwelling event provisions.". The proposed section 6E states, "In proceedings for an offence under this section consisting of a contravention of a dwelling event provision,...

Seanad: Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 and Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020: Motions (22 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: I want to add a few words to those which have already been spoken from these benches. When the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, then Tánaiste, came to the Seanad to announce the provision of the health Act earlier this year, I supported him and said that I was strongly behind him because I saw what I believed to be the alternative - the military trucks in Bergamo ferrying...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: First, I put on record that the leader of my group, Senator Boyhan, received the Order of Business for today at 10.19 a.m. It is not good enough that we should receive the proposed Order of Business so late in the day, with effectively 11 minutes to go before the Chamber assembled. Second, I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, as proposed by the Leader, to provide that the words...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: Posterior is a better word.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: Yes.

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 2: In page 3, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following:“ “Confidential Committee” means the committee established at paragraph (3) of the terms of reference as recited in the Order of 2015;”. Section 1 lists definitions and states, "the databases of residents of the institutions (specified in the Appendix to the terms of reference...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: That was my understanding too. The database that is going to Tusla has nothing to do with an individual who, in response to the appeal by the commission, came forward to give the confidential committee information about their experiences. Is this going to be transferred to Tusla as a database? I take it that it is not considered a related record. I wanted to be 100% clear on that because...