Results 16,741-16,760 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Written Answers — Visa Applications: Visa Applications (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: The documentation submitted to the Department conflicts with certain other information supplied independently to the Department by the authorities of the applicant's country of origin. My Department has now written to the authorities in question, enclosing a copy of the information supplied by the applicant. I am not in a position to issue the document in question pending a resolution of this...

Written Answers — Registration of Title: Registration of Title (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: This is an application under section 49 namely, acquisition of title by virtue of long possession, of the Registration of Title Act 1964, which was lodged on 4 March 2004. Dealing Number D2004XS003669E refers. Due to their complicated nature, applications under section 49, which require detailed examination as owners, can take some time to process. Accordingly, it is not possible to estimate...

Northern Ireland Issues: Motion (Resumed). (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: I wish to share time with Deputies Kirk and Glennon and the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy. I speak as a constitutional republican who, to use the words of Article 3 of the Constitution, shares the firm will of the Irish nation in harmony and in friendship to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland in all the diversity of their identities and traditions,...

Northern Ireland Issues: Motion (Resumed). (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: Is that a demanding question or requirement to make of anybody? Of course it is not. It is the basis upon which we all participate in politics, to uphold the rights and safety of others. Time and again, however — and I know this because I sat there and saw the drafts going this way and that — this proposition was put to Sinn Féin. Time and again, every effort was made to avoid signing up...

Northern Ireland Issues: Motion (Resumed). (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the fact that the motion has been so widely supported in the House. I believe the motion will attract not only the support of the great majority of Members of the House but also that of the great majority of the Irish people. Failing to live up to the logic of this motion is a self-inflicted handicap that the provisional movement has taken upon itself. When and if its members go...

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: They already do.

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Members for their very considered contributions to today's discussions. Senator Hayes told me to take events on their tide and I intend in the next few weeks to bring to Government the finalised version of the proposed defamation Bill which will contain provision for a press council along with many of the elements mentioned today as necessary reforms of our law of defamation. Time...

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: I was voted down by a certain party.

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: That exact phrase is used in An Phoblacht today on the subject of Daily Ireland.

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: Somebody pays for it.

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: I welcome this opportunity to again address Seanad Éireann on this topic. Members may recall that I last spoke here in this regard on 9 December 2003, a few days after a major conference which I organised as part of the public consultation process on the topic of defamation. Our debate today is on privacy and defamation, which though related are not the same thing. I said during our...

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: Exactly. The public are the best judges of these matters and they do not need a press council to speak on their behalf. On occasion I, and I have no doubt many others, feel a certain degree of distaste for individual articles or editorial decisions. While politicians have to develop thick skins, vulnerable people in society need not have to do so. It is in vogue these days to query the...

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——and record that he either responded to the facts and told one to get lost or denied them or that he did not respond to the facts. That then becomes the story, which is simply not an acceptable way to try to educate public opinion.

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: For some public figures, the situation in more recent times has become more complicated by security issues such as kidnapping or surveillance by criminal or terrorist groups. This must be weighted in the balance in the coverage of their activities. Newsworthy or profit worthy and information versus entertainment, essentially these are the choices facing the media in deciding on the extent of...

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: One of the founding fathers of the American Republic also said that if he had to choose between a society with a free government and an unfree press or one with an unfree government and a free press, he would choose the latter. I have always been of the opinion that while the latter statement sounds courageous and attitudinal, it is fundamentally flawed. The truth is that it is not possible...

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (8 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am preparing proposals to bring to the Government which will provide for extensive reform of the law concerning defamation, taking into account the work of the Law Reform Commission, the Commission on the Newspaper Industry, the legal advisory group on defamation and the public consultation process I initiated on publication of the group's report. Most of the responses received during the...

Written Answers — Ground Rents: Ground Rents (8 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy is aware that the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act 1978 provides for a statutory scheme for the acquisition of the fee simple by the owners of dwelling houses. Part III of the Act provides a special procedure, operated at low cost by the Land Registry, whereby owner occupiers of dwelling houses may acquire readily and relatively inexpensively the fee simple in their...

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (8 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Deputy may be aware that the equal opportunities child care programme provides grant assistance towards the staffing costs of community and not-for-profit child care services which have a clear focus on disadvantage. I have been informed by the child care directorate of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform that the group in question has been awarded two separate annual...

Written Answers — Departmental Strategy Statements: Departmental Strategy Statements (8 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: The implementation and progress report of November 2004 was prepared by the programme manager in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. No other member of staff in the Department was directly involved in compiling the report, which consolidates progress reports in each area of responsibility under my remit as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The vast majority of...

Written Answers — Family Law: Family Law (8 Feb 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996 provides a range of measures to ensure that proper provision is made for the maintenance of spouses and any dependent children of the family. The Act encourages couples to think in terms of agreeing the key elements of their divorce in advance of any court proceedings. The court may order the attachment of earnings at the same time as it makes a maintenance...