Results 14,841-14,860 of 18,734 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Yes, it has a right. The House will get an opportunity in the coming weeks to achieve what has not been done to remedy what was not put right——

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——and to do justice to those in the future who may otherwise suffer the kinds of injustices that a poorly run Garda force has visited on those in the Visitors Gallery and others.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am determined as the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform not just to push the Garda Síochána Bill through but with the assistance of the committee headed by Senator Maurice Hayes——

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——have it up and running as soon as possible. I will have achieved in three years what other justice Ministers from all parties have not. I will have modernised the Garda Síochána——

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——to make it a worthy police force for a modern republican democracy. I make no apology for being ambitious. I make no apology for being impatient.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: People are sick of the game playing that we saw on the call for a quorum.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: They want a Parliament that gets on with its obligations——

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——and works for change.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Garda Síochána is a wonderful force. It is a force we all support but it has serious defects exposed in its constitution, its management and its ethics.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I intend to remedy these. I hope the Members opposite will support me rather than engaging in the blame game.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: In his introduction to the board's annual report for 2004, which I launched on Tuesday, Mr. Holmes stated: There has been much debate as to whether the new Body should be run by a single Ombudsman or by a commission of three people. In my view, a three-person commission lessens the likelihood of a personality based conflict arising between it and Garda management. In considering the model in...

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: She was not a press officer. She was my special adviser.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: No, it is in the Bill.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I wanted to save the Labour Party's blushes.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The appendices of it.

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I pay tribute to Mr. Justice Frederick Morris and his legal and administrative team for the outstanding work they have done in uncovering the truth of what happened in Donegal. It is due to them that serious wrongdoing has been exposed and innocent citizens' rights have been vindicated. It is now for us to build on their work and to respond to their findings. Due to domestic circumstances...

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I think it has its origin in a development of a relationship between Government and the Garda Síochána and the emergence of the operation of an independent prosecutorial office in 1974 under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1974. As a result, the pendulum swung away from direct accountability to the Government of the day and to the law officer in charge of advising the Government and...

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: One need only go back to the period of Peter Berry's tenure of office and the records within the Department of Justice to appreciate that a culture of micro management of the Garda Síochána existed at that time. The Commissioner's role as a departmental official symbolised that situation. From the 1960s onwards, a different arrangement took place in which serving members of the Garda...

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The result was that the doctrine of operational independence of the Garda Síochána, of which we all stand completely shoulder to shoulder in support, which states there should not be political direction of the day to day operations of the Garda Síochána, became conflated with a different and I think a slightly pernicious doctrine that the Garda Síochána was not accountable for its day...

Morris Tribunal: Statements. (17 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I explain this to put in context what I now propose to say. The lawyers conducting the civil proceedings on my behalf repeatedly sought from me the full, factual matrix of the situation that was emerging in County Donegal. For reasons of the implementation of the doctrine that I have explained to the House, they were repeatedly kept away from it at that time. I have no doubt this was done in...