Results 1,261-1,280 of 18,741 for speaker:Michael McDowell

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...

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 point out to Senators Higgins and Ruane that before the Minister clarified that nothing would go to Tusla from the confidential committee, amendment No. 7 stated: “This section does not apply to any record or documents created for or by the Commission for the purposes of the Confidential Committee unless the person supplying the document or record of the information embodied in the...

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 ask the Senator to listen to me for a second. I am not trying to enforce any confidentiality on anybody. Senator Ruane made the suggestion that somehow this was my fault because the 2004 Act somehow provided for this. The 2004 Act did not ever contemplate a situation where people would give evidence without being cross-examined on it by anybody affected by it. It was to avoid all of...

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: First, like Senator Mullen, I agree that my set of amendments were concentrating on the rights of those who wanted to maintain their confidentiality because that is what I was concerned with. Senators Ruane and Higgins have pointed to the opposite cohort who did not want confidentiality and wanted total publicity and public hearings. I hope Senator Ruane will not accuse me of mansplaining.

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: If one goes back to 2004 and looks at the situation that the then Government found itself in, it wanted to do justice to the victims of clerical sexual abuse. It wanted to establish an inquiry into the Dublin archdiocese, which was conducted by Judge Murphy as well. She has been a huge pillar of the State in these matters. The only tools available to us at the time were the tribunal of...

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: What about the records then?