Results 14,501-14,520 of 18,734 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Garda Deployment. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: As the Deputy is aware, over the years numerous organisations have requested and have been given the assistance of gardaí on a non-public duty basis. This non-public duty is performed by members of An Garda Síochána under arrangements made by the Garda authorities with organisers of events such as football matches, race meetings and rock concerts who seek their services to perform duties...

Garda Deployment. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I agree with Deputy Gregory that if event organisers, particularly those who organise high profit events, were obliged to pay their fair share of the extra security and policing costs the event creates, there would be more resources and it would be easier for local district officers to assign gardaí to deal with the problems to which the Deputy refers. For instance, we all see people on...

Garda Deployment. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Exactly.

Garda Deployment. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I fully appreciate that people who live in the environs of large stadiums want the area and the patrons of the event to be properly policed. In Lansdowne Road, for instance, in my constituency, one aspect on which the residents have a very strong view, especially in the context of its redevelopment, is that there would be a comprehensive traffic management plan which would come into effect...

Garda Deployment. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Nobody has given me any tickets.

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am in the process of finalising the details of the proposals for the defamation Bill and following Government approval, which I have obtained, I intend in due course to publish the heads of the draft Bill so that they are in the public domain. As in the case of other Bills, in the course of formal drafting I will take account of the comments I receive on publication of the draft heads. I...

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It all depends on what one means by the term "statutory". A purely voluntary body would be wholly ineffectual because its judgments, decisions and so on would be subject to being sued. In other words, it would not have any teeth. By the same token, a statutory press council of the other kind, in which the State, through the Government, decided what a press council would be and who would serve...

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: No, it is possible to have two points of view. One of them is that privacy is a very complicated issue. For example, at one level, one could claim the intrusion into Leas Cross nursing home was a breach of patient privacy whereas at another level, it could be claimed it was in the public interest that the information should be published. How, in a statute, to work out the exact line of...

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: These are the kinds of cases where drawing an exact line between what is and is not permissible is difficult. The Government's point of view is that we should not shy away from the issue just because it is difficult if we can come up with a law which is a help and protects privacy. The Attorney General and I will work on that in the next few months. The Deputy asked for an indicative...

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I will give the Deputy a Delphic reply to his last question: watch this space. With regard to funding, I have never known the media interests in Ireland to have an unwillingness to fund an independent press council. They could not reasonably expect the State to fund a press council which was genuinely independent and not accountable to the taxpayer. That is not a runner.

Libel Laws. (23 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The media in our society are sufficiently well-to-do to pay the cost to the community of policing their own activities through a press council. It would not be fair to tell pensioners, hospital patients and others that the resources they seek should be taken away and given to a press council, when the media are in a good position to fund it.

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

Michael McDowell: I wish to address some remarks made earlier today in the House by some of the Members opposite on an apparent inconsistency between what former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, told the House in May 2001 and what I told the House last Friday. I draw the attention of Members opposite to their duty, before they make an allegation of dishonesty or impugn the...

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

Michael McDowell: Yes, he did.

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

Michael McDowell: Members opposite should stop acting like a crowd of idiots. I am reading a report which Members have in front of them.

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

Michael McDowell: I am saying that he made——

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

Michael McDowell: I will not patronise Members but I want them to be honest.

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

Michael McDowell: Members are aware, from the text I read out, that the former Minister made it very clear——

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

Michael McDowell: The Deputy should stop shouting.

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

Michael McDowell: It adds nothing to the dignity of this House when Deputies act like bully boys.

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

Michael McDowell: I will repeat what he said: "On the latter point the Deputy will be aware from recent correspondence that I have not seen the investigation file——