Results 12,601-12,620 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Written Answers — Asylum Applications: Asylum Applications (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: The person concerned arrived in the State on 24 September 2004 and applied for asylum. Her application was refused following consideration of her case by the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and on appeal by the Office of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. She was informed by letter dated 20 April 2005 that the Minister proposed to make a deportation order in respect of her and...

Written Answers — Garda Strength: Garda Strength (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: I have been informed by the Garda authorities, which are responsible for the detailed allocation of resources, including personnel, that the personnel strength of each Garda station in Cork city and county as at 31 December in each year since 1997 and as at 18 November 2005 was as set out in the following table. Station 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 18/11/05 Pop. Anglesea Street 186...

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: I know, and that is the point. We are dealing with a problem that has never existed in the past, where a volunteer offering first aid to someone else in good faith has been sued. Is it a good idea to address a situation that has never arisen in terms that would introduce the idea of people being sued for failure to offer first aid? I worry a great deal about that concept. We should not...

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is a fact.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: That is what the Bill will do.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: Differential levels of liability could be introduced for health care professionals, which is the term used in the Bill. Does "health care professionals" refer to paramedics, nurses, consultants and general practitioners?

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: If a general practitioner treats the patient of a colleague, he has a duty of care but if he treats his own patient, he has a different duty of care. Will that become law?

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: Our great problem is the Deputies have not thought their Bill through.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Bill will introduce concepts into domestic law which have not been thought through. If they had been, Deputy Timmins would have said there would be a differential level of liability between two doctors.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: So from now on paramedics on duty will be liable to be sued in circumstances where experts who do not have a contractual relationship with the patient have no duty. Public servants who take a salary cheque at the end of the month for undertaking duties will be in a different position from consultants who walk past the same scene.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Deputies have not thought this carefully through.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Bill contains only two sections and the Deputies are asking me to move on to the provisions that are appropriate. They are trying to say it is a good idea to amend the law though this legislation.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am trying to work out whether the Bill is related to defibrillator services or whether it provides for a broad brush, which would ensure people stay away from accident scenes because differential levels of care would be introduced in circumstances in which it is not appropriate to do so. I would like to hear the IMO's views on this, since it represents many general practitioners. Perhaps...

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: Is a visit to an accident scene undertaken in the expectation of reward if one is a member of a group practice, which would charge for the call out? Does one owe a greater duty in those circumstances?

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: I know, but the Bill exempts health care professionals acting in the course of employment. Employment is defined curiously as "having been summoned or called to provide service or assistance for payment or reward". I presume this means in the course of an employment. However, the legislation has not thought through carefully two fundamental concepts, the first of which is whether people can...

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: It may not be the intention but why does section 2 state "or failing to act"? Second, I wonder whether the introduction of differential levels of liability for different health professionals is a good idea and how it would work in practice. With regard to group practices, is somebody providing a service for payment or reward if he or she is called out to treat an accident victim using the...

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: Unfortunately, a necessary precondition for this Bill to come into effect is that the person render emergency first aid assistance to a person.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: First aid is not involved in or does not apply to pulling a child down from a tree, pulling a person off a cliff ledge or throwing a lifebelt to a person in a river.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: Some people have a neck. This is a hole dug by the draftsman. I am asking the Deputies not to dig the hole any deeper, but to agree with me that there are broader questions that should be studied by the Law Reform Commission. It would be foolish to proceed with or accept this Bill which is fraught with difficulty and riven with internal contradictions.

Good Samaritan Bill 2005: Second Stage. (6 Dec 2005)

Michael McDowell: It has its draftsmen.