Results 18,441-18,460 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Report on Dublin and Monaghan Bombings: Motion. - Defamation: Statements. (10 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: The Government is not required to go naked into some kind of communal sauna in order to be accountable to the people. We are entitled to our privacy. We are entitled to generate our proposals in private. We are entitled to come up with foolish ideas and then spike them. We are entitled to put trenchant views against each other's positions coming up to a Cabinet decision and if we want to...

Seanad: Report on Dublin and Monaghan Bombings: Motion. - Defamation: Statements. (10 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: The media naturally wanted to know everything. Quite naturally they always want to know everything. I do not blame the media for using every pressure at their command to achieve maximum transparency, but good government requires a deal of privacy and confidentiality, and on occasion, things have to happen behind closed doors. The deliberative process must be protected. I have held two public...

Seanad: Report on Dublin and Monaghan Bombings: Motion. - Defamation: Statements. (10 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: I accept that is a point. I acknowledge that people who are critical of the media should always remember that spin and leaks are the other side of the coin. Senator Mansergh put this point more pithily than I but I accept that proposition. I said earlier that one must be robust with the media. The media are better at giving it than taking it. They order ink by the barrel-load and those who...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Second Stage. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: I thank Senators for their willingness to take this legislation today. Seanad Éireann has always supported the Government's attempts to bring peace and political stability to Northern Ireland. The purpose of the Bill is to provide in our law for the establishment of the Independent Monitoring Commission which has been the subject of an Agreement between the Governments of the United Kingdom...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Second Stage. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: The Senator would be better off preparing for the next one.

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Second Stage. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: I thank Senators for their contributions on the Bill this afternoon. This legislation is narrow in its focus but important in its potential effect on the situation in the future. It was interesting to hear contributions in the House from various perspectives.

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: Senator Mansergh is correct and I must reflect that Senator Brian Hayes's remarks are probably causing various people in the Department of Finance to fall off their chairs in amazement at the Opposition demanding that the Department of Finance's interests should be protected. It should be noted that section 4 deals with a number of elements concerning moneys, premises, facilities and...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: The position is that the total annual budget envisaged for it is of the order of €3 million and it will be shared on a 50-50 basis between the two Governments. Therefore, the Irish Government will contribute €1.5 million and the UK Government will contribute the sterling equivalent of €1.5 million. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Section 4 agreed to. SECTION 5.

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: This is an international body. The question of whether it could be susceptible to suit in the Irish courts is a serious one. If people began to take judicial review type remedies of mandamus ordering it to do things, certiorari quashing its reports or directing it by a court based injunction to exercise its functions in one way or another, it would cease to have the status of an international...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: Arising from Dr. Mansergh's remarks, if one inserts the "in good faith" stipulation, one is saying to a judge of an Irish court on either side of the Border, in a Northern Ireland High Court or in a High Court in the South, that whether the commission is acting in good faith is a justiciable issue before that court. If one concedes it is a justiciable issue, one then gives the right of...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: They would, but they could start proceedings with their lawyers querying the meaning of the phrase "in good faith" and suggesting that it must be based on some rational appreciation of the circumstances and be reasonable in some way. If they then said they had a reasonableness test, the case could be dragged out. In very many cases of judicial review which I have seen, efforts are made to...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: That might be so, but section 6 is designed to put into the Act what is set out in Article 13(2) and I do not want to be seen by Westminster to be redrawing the agreement or adding new portions to it at this stage, having so recently signed it in the company of the British ambassador. It might be regarded as not quite the done thing to agree to an amendment which in effect would amend Article...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: Article 2 of the Agreement and our own statute already provide that, "The Commission shall be independent in the performance of its functions". There is a slight difference of nuance here. One could say someone shall be independent in the performance of his function and also say that his independence shall not be compromised. I see that point. At this stage, whatever sympathy I may have,...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: Unless another Member of the House has a contrary point of view of which he or she wants to persuade me, I am disposed to agree to the amendment proposed by Senator Hayes, for the reasons he has stated.

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: It is unlikely. There are restrictions on much of the information which can go out from the Garda Síochána. It is more likely than not that in recent legislation there have been express authorisations for the disclosure of information in certain circumstances, to the Criminal Assets Bureau, for example.

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: Yes, I think that is probable.

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: Senator Walsh already made it clear that where a first reading of section 7 might give the impression to the casual reader that the disclosure of information was mandatory, it is not. It is discretionary. Therefore, a member of the Garda Síochána would not be in a position to give information which he or she believed was prejudicial to the interests of the State or threatened security, or...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: I echo what Senator Mansergh said about Articles 2 and 3. It was not a question of this State giving something away—

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: —or the people of this State giving something away. The people of this State made a positive choice to re-articulate their stance on the national question in a manner which would underpin and strengthen the emergence and persistence of democratic values in Northern Ireland. One must see it in context. One of the implications of the pre-Good Friday Agreement situation was that as a matter of...

Seanad: Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (9 Dec 2003)

Michael McDowell: We were discussing the section.