Results 1,661-1,680 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: I empathise with Senator Norris about the missive he received from Allied Irish Banks. I had a visa card from Allied Irish Banks and it was funded from my bank account in Ulster Bank. I got a similar demand to explain how I had accumulated all of my wealth across my life for simply having a visa card that was funded by a standing order. This shows the ludicrous aspect of some of the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Over 70 years, which is quite absurd. The other thing that is offensive about it is the title of PEP - a politically exposed person. Again, that is a presumption that those of us in this House require special supervision in respect of our financial affairs over and above members of An Bord Pleanála or you name it. Do they get this kind of treatment? I do not think they do.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: All our business is done in public, and certainly when one is not an officeholder, one is assumed to be a "politically exposed person" requiring this special treatment when those people who have huge discretionary powers - county managers, members of An Bord Pleanála and planning officials - have far more day-to-day power and far more potential to abuse that power than being a Member for...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: It was fine to coast along on the coat tails of the United Kingdom and hope that they would examine these things and weed out the excessive or repugnant aspects of European legislative initiatives. They are no longer there. I repeat the following point, which I have said this before in this House, and I will keep saying it. We talk about being politically exposed, but Ireland is now...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Before we, as a country, get trapped into considering the irrelevant and the insignificant for electoral advantage or political sniping, let us remember that this country is going towards Niagara in terms of its complete exposure as a result of taking no active part in the generation of European legislation.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: I am aware that the Government and the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, in particular, are deeply concerned about what is happening in the Brexit negotiations. I do not wish in any sense to pay insufficient attention to that state of affairs. However, I am concerned that within the past week, the President of the United States, in a telephone conversation,...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Things were bad enough in Syria before but were beginning to normalise. The current situation was started by the actions of the American President in abandoning, in a most cowardly way, the people who did all the fighting for him in confronting ISIS and ending the caliphate that was established in Syria and Iraq. I accept that the Tánaiste's mind will be elsewhere today and for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: I thank the witnesses for coming in. Can we return to the hydrogen issue? I know that the technology is developing. Is our network capable of dealing with hydrogen? Is it fully polyethylene-lined?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: As a component of the natural gas?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Does Mr. O'Sullivan have a budget, even notionally, for making the network fully hydrogen capable?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Will Mr. O'Sullivan explain in simple terms how he envisages the hydrogen being generated for distribution? How many generation plants would be required? What kind of plants would they be? Would they be big or small? I presume that they would be electricity-driven in the end?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: So for blue hydrogen, natural gas is brought in and split into two components. Is that right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: One of the components is put underground.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Mr. O'Sullivan thinks that two or three stations would be enough to do this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Going back to Deputy Smith's point, where would all that gas come from? Is it shale gas or from the Middle East?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Is it biogas?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: To be clear, Mr. O'Sullivan's vision involves continued prospecting for indigenous fields such as Corrib up to 2050?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Gas Networks Ireland's Vision 2050: Discussion (15 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: I am with Mr. O'Sullivan. I am not hostile at all.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: We will discuss the budget later. I want to raise on the Order of Business the possibility of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Simon Coveney, coming to this House to discuss one aspect of Brexit which I think is of great significance. Today's revelation in The Spectatormagazine of what is really going on in the mind of Dominic Cummings deserves close...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: Yes.