Results 14,781-14,800 of 18,734 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Garda Commissioner will be in a position to dismiss members of the Garda Síochána of garda sergeant or inspector rank where the Commissioner has lost confidence in the capacity of that member to discharge his or her duty and where dismissal is considered necessary to maintain public confidence in the force. There will be a provision to strengthen the existing provisions in the Bill to...

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: As the Deputy is aware, anyone can go to a TD. It is provided that the provision of information, even confidential information, to a TD or a Member of the Oireachtas does not breach the Garda's duty of confidentiality. This is already included in the Bill in statutory form. I want to make it clear that this Bill is based on consultation and reflection on what went wrong. What went wrong...

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: My point is that these issues have been a long time coming and a long time ignored by politicians, and now that they are apparent, they are being dealt with by this politician, unlike other politicians who did nothing about it.

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am not suggesting that. I thought I made the point frankly and fairly. I am not making that point.

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am making a different point and if the Deputy cannot understand it, it is a reflection on his capacity to discharge his functions as a leader of a party. My point is different. It is not that every Minister for Justice must regard every fax and every letter as the reason to suddenly cause a massive inquiry into the Garda Síochána or that any Minister for Justice could sort through the...

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am not saying that, I am saying that the governance issues with which we are dealing and the atrophy of proper accountability within the force must have been present for at least the best part of two decades. I am the politician who is remedying it and there must be political accountability for all who held office, even in my party who were at the Cabinet table during some of these years,...

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: If the point made yesterday by Kevin Murphy about the Department of Health and Children has any truth in that context, which appeared to have a lot of support from the Opposition benches today, it is equally true about Garda management. If there had been problems for 20 years plus, I cannot be politically accountable because I am dealing with them, any more than they were the political...

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy made his point of information, which I reject. The point I wanted to make was that those who sat around the Cabinet table when the basic preconditions for what has been exposed in the Morris tribunal came to pass must share accountability for that with those who have since been in office when the matters came to light. They must accept that they are at least as culpable as yours...

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: That is what the record shows.

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——wanted to have an inquiry and to have the truth emerge in regard to what happened in Donegal.

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: He wanted it. He was advised at the time that because of pending jury trials——

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Yes, by me. He was advised that there was a difficulty and the law was changed to facilitate it in the wake of the Murphy report. The Deputy knows all about this. There is no point getting in a heap about it because that is what happened.

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The House has a duty to ensure the Garda functions today, tomorrow, next week and next month to the highest standards and all of us share that duty. Now is the time to put in place a genuinely independent complaints system, a new framework for the governance of the Garda, an inspectorate to ensure there are high standards in the Garda, benchmarked to the best international practice and a...

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The notion that we should postpone or adjourn the process of reform to put it into the hands of a Patten-style commission is misconceived.

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The people are looking to the Government of the day to act in the matter and they are looking to the Opposition of the day to support good measures for the reform, reconstitution and strengthening of the Garda. Today, tomorrow and the next day our streets must be policed. I cannot take the Garda to a test bench in a laboratory and fiddle around with it leaving a vacuum for weeks, months or...

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The business of Government is to govern and the business of the House is to legislate. The time has come for delivery without more talk.

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: My three years have been usefully spent on a consultative basis——

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I have not been in Government for eight years

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I remind Deputy Rabbitte for the fifth time that his party was in office for ten years after it made a binding electoral commitment to set up an independent police authority but it did nothing on foot of it.

Morris Tribunal: Motion. (21 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am in office three years. I have brought a Bill through a consultative process in the House and I am being asked by the Labour Party to walk away.