Results 14,461-14,480 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: There is a very simple answer, which has become clear to me in the course of this debate. It is a bad and rotten idea.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The real problem is that if it were introduced, the Opposition in this House would have no accountability from the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform of the day at all. One would have the bland old response that the crime or homicide rate was rising and that we really must do something about it, such as sending a letter to the independent police authority and telling it to pull its...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Opposition Members want the exact opposite. It is their desire that the Minister of the day should be accountable to the House for the state of policing, law and order and law enforcement issues, in other words, the entire criminal justice system.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I will not give away.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Opposition Members have had plenty of time to discuss this issue. They do not want, under the circumstances, to give up the notion of ministerial accountability, but they wish to divest the Minister of any real authority in the matter and to give it to a group of the great and the good who would carry out this function. That is the real problem with Deputy Ó Snodaigh's amendment No. 42. It...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Throughout the debate on this Bill, both in public and private, there has been a radical failure on the part of those who support an independent police authority to come up with any view of how that police authority would relate to this House and to the notion of ministerial accountability. The second aspect of Deputy Ó Snodaigh's proposal is that the appointment of deputy commissioners and...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is most urgent that the first of these positions be knocked on the head. I have been Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform for three years. During that time, I have never in any shape or form interfered or made representation or communication, whether formal, informal, by a nod or wink or any other means, to any member of the Garda Síochána in respect of any promotion that has...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The same applies in regard to the transfer of any garda from one location to another. Many Deputies have approached me during votes offering pieces of paper on which are written the names of gardaí who wish to be transferred. Those pieces of paper stay in my pocket until I relegate them to the wastepaper bin. I have never interfered in this way.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I will never partake in such interference. That is the situation.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am entirely unaware of the party political allegiance of any of the senior gardaí with whom I have ever done business. They have never let me know, by any means, anything by which I could make such a judgment. The other form of reprehensible favouritism to which Members have referred is that relating to some form of internal politics whereby members of a particular Garda division may...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Who would Deputies argue should appoint the panels? Would they like the NGOs to do so? We live in a constitutional world——

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: We live in a constitutional world where it is the duty of the Government to govern.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Government appoints the members of the Human Rights Commission and of the Judiciary, for example. I am satisfied that it should also appoint the panels from which independent outsiders will be asked to carry out these functions in regard to the Garda Síochána.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It has been stated repeatedly that because the Garda Commissioner and the senior Garda ranks hold office from the Government, they are somehow politicised. This is totally false. The only sense in which it is true that superintendent or chief superintendents are appointed by the Government is that they are appointed at the end of a merit-based process and that the Government invariably...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: That has always happened in my experience both as Attorney General and as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. When people are promoted on that basis, the pertinent point about the fact that they hold office from the Government is that this gives them strength in their role in that they cannot be sidelined, pushed aside or demoted because they hold their commission, like Army...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I should not give way on Report Stage.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I accept that point. I am in total agreement on this.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: That is exactly the point I am making.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I take the Deputy's point and make this point by way of reply. I agree the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform had become isolated and was effectively operating on trust and that——

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: May I finish?