Results 1,541-1,560 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: Yes.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: That would be an ecumenical matter.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 6: In page 8, line 21, after "chairperson" to insert "where the chairperson was a lay person at the time of his or her appointment". My amendment is somewhat different from that of Senator Norris in that it does not exclude the possibility that the chairperson may be a layperson but instead proposes that the definition of "chairperson" be included in the definition of...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: Academics should be capable of being chairperson of the commission and of being appointed to judicial office and retaining their position as chairperson notwithstanding their being a lawyer. My second point is one the Minister may tire of hearing but which he never deals with in a substantive response. I have repeatedly said in the course of this debate that the Minister has brought...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: The point of the amendment is simple. It is to point out to the Minister that the presence of the Chief Justice, as chair of the advisory board, has had no negative effect whatsoever on the quality of people appointed. The present system is much more likely to produce good appointees than the proposed new system. We will come to the other provisions later that deal with the composition of...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is. He made the point that it was cronyism-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: -----that the Chief Justice attended the wedding of other judge's children.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: That is the point I am making.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is part of this unspoken accusation of cronyism that has been articulated both in leaflets distributed in Dublin Rathdown, which I have drawn the Minister for Justice and Equality's attention to, that somehow there is some inside group of people making these decisions and that the Government is not getting the best talent available. I ask him to consider long and hard whether all the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: May I reply to Senator Conway?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: While I understand the Minister does not want to contribute further on amendment No. 6-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: I respect his right not to do so in the circumstances. That is not a problem. I am grateful to Senator Conway for asking me to consider planning to become a judge.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: It echoes the Minister's invitation last week when he asked me to stand in Dublin Bay South.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: Obviously, members of the Fine Gael Party want me anywhere but here. I take that as a compliment and am pleased to do so. The selection of someone to chair a body of the kind we are discussing is either left to the body or it is an ex officioappointment, but this is not an ex officioappointment. Rather, it is an appointment based on the proposition that there is one type of person who...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: Is there any reason in common sense that should be done? The answer is "No". I note that the Minister chose not to respond to any of the arguments I made about the quality of the appointments he has made or about the disinhibiting effect the amendment will have on decent people making applications. He simply stated he did not wish to answer those points. He has a right to silence and not...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: She stood up and stated she personally believed it was a bad idea-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: -----but she was forced by her party whip to do what she had been told to do.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: On the quarantine period of three years Senator Craughwell mentioned, if the Government wanted, for some crazy reason, to exclude people from being chair of the commission, three or five years would surely be enough. If the person had gone from being a lawyer to being-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: -----joining an insurance company or becoming chairman of a bank, or another such change that has happened in the past, a period of ten years is surely not necessary to get rid of the camaraderie or whatever of the Law Society or the Law Library, which is supposed to be so terrible. The prohibition on the chairperson being a lay person means, according to the legislation, that someone who...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (26 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: Let us be clear: the appointments could not have happened if this stupid Bill had been passed into law. The Government would have had to advertise every one of the appointments, and each of the sitting judges who have just been promoted to other positions would have had to reapply to the commission.