Results 15,341-15,360 of 18,734 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Written Answers — Residency Permits: Residency Permits (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: An application for permission to remain in the State based on marriage to an Irish national was received from the person concerned in April 2005. Applications of this type, in fairness to all other such applicants, are dealt with in chronological order and take approximately 16 months to process. The application in question was acknowledged on 3 May 2005. Marriage to an Irish national does...

Coroners Service. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I agree with the thrust of the Deputy's remarks but not with how he expressed some of them. Reform in this area is long overdue. The Coroners Act was introduced in 1962 and even then was unduly restrictive and problematic. Now in 2005 the time is long past for reform of the coroner service. The choice that confronted me was whether to produce what is called a break-out Bill to provide for an...

Coroners Service. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: The figure of €110,000 is misleading because many coroners' salaries come from Departments other than mine. On the issue of the powers of coroners, in the past we had an overly timid approach to their powers. As the Deputy will recall, when suicide was a crime, it was held by the courts that a coroner could not find that suicide was the cause of death because it was an imputation of...

Coroners Service. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: There should be a broader power than simply saying, for example, that somebody died of asphyxiation. The analogy for a coroners court is not an adversarial court; it is more like a standing tribunal into unnatural deaths or suspected unnatural deaths. A tribunal can make a finding which is of significance and which the public can understand, but it does not have legal consequence in terms of...

Coroners Service. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I share Deputy Costello's concern that on occasions the sufferings of people whose loved ones have died have been aggravated significantly by the fact that pharmacological tests are conducted simply to exclude the possibility of overdose in circumstances where it is only a technical possibility. These people must wait months to receive the results of those tests before a proper post mortem...

Prisoner Escort Services. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy will be aware that the recently published Prisons Bill 2005 contains provisions which will enable the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to enter into an agreement with another party for the provision of prisoner escort services. This legislation will be enacted without delay. Arrangements to invite tenders for the outsourcing of this service will proceed in parallel....

Prisoner Escort Services. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I do not want to discuss this matter in public in a way that would do more harm than good.

Prisoner Escort Services. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I have been very committed to this process and I have shown great patience. If the Deputies knew exactly what I have done and what I have forborne from doing to bring about an agreed conclusion to this process, they would be surprised.

Prisoner Escort Services. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am not in the business of renegotiating a deal that was reached through the public service arbitrator. If I were to do so, I would be setting a horrific precedent. It was clear during the frank discussion I had with the prison officers' executive, which was friendly on a personal level, that the position is as I have outlined. If the prison officers want me to consider a particular...

Prisoner Escort Services. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I do not intend to re-enter negotiations with prison officers. There will be no more discussions. If they wish to make a proposal, they can put it to me in writing and I will decide whether to accept it. I expect any proposal that is made by prison officers to command acceptance among them. I will not negotiate with them for a third time. The measures I am taking are proceeding. I assure...

Leaders' Questions. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: They are coming.

Central Statistics Office Report. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: That is not true. It is the exact opposite of the truth.

Central Statistics Office Report. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: There has been a decrease in the rate in each of the last two years.

Crime Levels. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 6 together. I have outlined previously to the House the extensive range of measures which have been taken to deal with the types of crime referred to in the questions. Those measures will, of course, continue. I have been concerned for some time, and this is a concern shared on all sides of the House, that serious offences which have been taking place...

Crime Levels. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I welcome Deputy O'Keeffe's support for getting on with the core legislative requirements to deal with the problem. Although some of the provisions of the Criminal Justice Bill are controversial, most of the central ones, such as detention, search and scene preservation powers will assist the Garda Síochána in the fight against this kind of crime. Regarding crime involving organised gangs,...

Crime Levels. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——and a very serious offence for which the penalty is life imprisonment. I heard Deputy O'Keeffe on radio discussing whether we should regard hostage-taking as a separate species, so to speak, but we should remember that the penalty for false imprisonment can be life imprisonment. I do not want to speak entirely off the cuff, but perhaps a case can be made for a minimum sentence where a...

Crime Levels. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: I act in conjunction with the Garda Commissioner in the allocation of funds. Operation Crossover, to which the Deputy referred, was a successful operation. It targeted specific areas on the western side of this city and had a significant effect.

Crime Levels. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: We are by no means back to square one. There was a significant improvement in the situation arising from Operation Crossover. I attended the opening of a new offenders' transition home in the Blanchardstown area some days ago and, on that occasion, voluntary groups who are concerned with crime in the Blanchardstown area reported to me that there had been a dramatic improvement in policing in...

Crime Levels. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is important that when we engage in a certain type of expenditure, we keep it under review to assess whether it has lost its vitality and whether it is yielding dividends.

Crime Levels. (17 May 2005)

Michael McDowell: It would be easy to simply tell the Garda Commissioner that he can have as much money as he wants which can be spent as he wishes, but I cannot do that and I accept the Deputy is not inviting me to do it. I cannot operate on the basis of proclaiming that there is no limit to overtime and that the Garda can do what it wants at any time. If that psychology took hold, we would simply see...