Results 1,801-1,820 of 18,726 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: He has made the argument on a number of occasions that unless this Bill is brought through, the culture of cronyism will continue. I was grateful to Senator Boyhan for making an inquiry of the Courts Service as to how many appointments have been made while the Minister, Deputy Ross, was sitting at the Cabinet table. It appears it amounts to 45 at all levels of the Judiciary from the Supreme...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: The Government has functioned very well in this respect. If the Minister, Deputy Ross, has any views about the candidates proposed at Cabinet, he has had an opportunity within the Cabinet room to express his views and doubtless they have been listened to very carefully.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: I am not being mischievous in the slightest. I am pointing out what the constitutional order is, and I am making the point that the man who claims that this Bill is necessary to end cronyism-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: -----was party to a process which has produced excellent appointments at every level of the Irish Judiciary. There have been 45 such appointments since he took office, and there has been no controversy whatsoever in regard to any of them. Unless the Minister, Deputy Ross, is suggesting that he is personally keeping Fine Gael right on these issues by his influence at the Cabinet table, which...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: Senator Conway should be aware that we are discussing an amendment which would prevent the commission from inquiring into the political, ideological, philosophical or religious views, or the sexual orientation, of candidates. Of course the charge of political cronyism is relevant in that context. Those issues could well inform a Government in its choice of an appointee. Cabinet members...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: Sectarianism was so rife and so deeply ingrained in this country that people used to specify the religion of grocer's assistants, housemaids and even people coming to lodge in their property. We know this from the decision of the High Court in the case of Schlegel v.Corcoran and Gross in regard to anti-Semitism, a most unfortunate decision of the late Mr. Justice Gavan Duffy in the pre-war years.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: He ruled that a landlord with anti-Semitic outlooks could not be held to be unreasonable in refusing to allow a Jewish dentist to use the ground-floor rooms of her home in Harrington Street in Dublin because, as the judge put it, such prejudice was so notorious and ingrained that it could not be regarded as unreasonable. That is how the world was then, but it is not the same now. The third...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is a good one. If the Senator thinks for one minute of the contrary position, that an applicant, man or woman, solicitor or barrister, would go before the commission for interview and be asked questions about his or her homosexuality, membership of a political party, religious views or whether he or she is an atheist or theist, Protestant or Catholic-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: I will come back to him in a second.A person who was going before a committee and felt that he or she may be asked questions on those issues would be somebody who, strangely, could not be asked those questions for any other position by a would-be employer and could seek redress, curiously, from the Equality Tribunal if asked such questions in an employment context. This appointment being to...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: He had a very impressive capacity to communicate constitutional law issues in a very neutral but also really educational way to his students. None of them would have guessed - certainly, I would not have guessed - that he would have ended up espousing the natural law arguments and saying that natural law was superior to man-made law, positive law and the like.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: No. Senator Norris might reflect on the following point. Anybody who knew about him knew that the views that he laterally expressed, which led to controversy as regards his presidency of the Law Reform Commission and the like, were views that developed after his appointment because he had a particular path of personal development in regard to religious matters and religious organisations,...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: It is from 80 years ago.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: Senator Norris seems to ignore the fact that we are dealing with Part 8 of the Bill, which is concerned with the publication. This is set out from page 33 onwards and we are now at page 34. The purpose of this part is to provide for a statement on selection procedures and requisite skills and attributes. This is to be prepared in draft form by the procedures committee of the commission and...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: That is the point. The point I am making in this context is simple in respect of the interview process. Section 53(5) states:In the preparation of the statement referred to in subsection (1)(a), the Procedures Committee shall, amongst other matters, have regard to—(a) the critical importance of the selection procedures, in filling vacancies in judicial office, to the administration...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: If one looks, for instance, at the charter of Trinity College, it was established for the advancement of the Protestant religion. I do not think it took a view that Anglicans were outside that particular category.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: We are agreed completely on that issue.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 97e:In page 34, line 16, after "requisite" to insert "experience",".

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 97f:In page 34, to delete lines 22 to 24. The purpose of this amendment is to delete section 53(3). The Bill, as drafted, states, "In the preparation of the statements referred to in subsection (1), the Procedures Committee shall consult with the President of each court (save a President who is a member of that Committee)." It goes on to state, "However if none of the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: In view of that generous approach, I will not press the amendment any further.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: Yes.