Results 18,501-18,520 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: I regret that I am not disposed to accepting this amendment because its effect would be that it would no longer be an offence for a person to engage in disorderly conduct in a licensed premises. An offence would arise only if the disorderly person refused to leave or re-entered within 24 hours. One of the principal aims of the Bill is to address the problems of drunkenness and disorderly...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: I have an open mind on this but the word "substantial" is included because anybody availing of this can say there was a risk. If it is a tiny risk, is that to be a reason for refusing admission? It has to be one of substance. What worries me is that if we do not have something of substance, we might have a pretext whereby people would mask discriminatory behaviour by saying a person was...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: The Senator might take as an example somebody who was guilty of disorderly conduct. If all the publicans in his village barred him for life as a consequence, would that be a proportionate or reasonable thing for them to do ten years later? Would they still be able to refuse the person admission because he had beaten up a barman in another pub down the road and tell him that he would never be...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: The Equal Status Act also uses the phrase "substantial risk". Therefore, there is coherence. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Question proposed: "That section 8 stand part of the Bill."

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: It is a phrase used frequently in the licensing code that "it shall not be unlawful". I do not want to give the Senator an off-the-cuff answer as to whether saying something is lawful is the same as saying that it shall not be unlawful. It may be that someone would claim that they have authority to do something by virtue of one proposition. A double negative says only that something is not...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: Not necessarily.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: It would be totally irrelevant for me to comment on Senator Norris's totally irrelevant point, but I tend to agree with him that the staff of accident and emergency units deserve protection. The context is probably one of public order offences. The present Bill deals with the licensing code. There are many other people who deserve protection, such as bus drivers.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: I note that the Senator came into the House on the basis that we were not making adequate progress and is now busily impeding it.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: Exactly. As far as Senator Jim Walsh's point is concerned, the offences provided for here are the same as those covered in section 6. Whether the fine is €1,500 or €500, in the context of a court conviction there is a great deal of public opprobrium and disgrace. As I said, though perhaps not in this House, for several offences I am considering introducing the right for the Garda...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: First, in the case that an injustice would be done by a conviction, there is always the Probation Act as a way out for the District Court. Having said that, if I accede to these amendments I would be saying that everyone has one free go at being done for drunkenness and the closure regime would not apply on that occasion. That would send out the wrong signal as it would suggest to every...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: Sometimes I am damned among my friends in this House. Taking the more judicious language used by Senator Dardis, I would damage the section and the entire idea if I was to send out the message that a person had one free go and that they would not face sanction unless they had transgressed on a previous occasion. This would make everybody complacent about it and it would not have the deterrent...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: If I was to accept the Senator's amendment, there would not be discretion on the first offence.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: I prefer what is in place for the reasons I outlined. I do not claim to be infallible on these matters, but if the message goes out from the Houses of the Oireachtas that drunkenness in a pub is a serious matter and that if there is a conviction, unless the Probation of Offenders Act is applied, there will be a closure attached to it, many of those who manage pubs will tell their staff that...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: I wish to reply to that with some force. There is some justification for that being the case. If, for example, a 19 year old – forget about an underage person – was rendered hopelessly drunk in a licensed premises, fell on the pavement and suffered brain damage from which they never recovered—

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: —or drove a car and killed somebody else, the fact that it was only one person and that the entire premises was not being run like some kind of Bacchanalian place does not diminish the seriousness of the matter. I want to get across the message to the drinks industry – we will succeed in doing so – that, from now on, it is a serious matter if somebody gets drunk in a premises. The...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: There would have to be a detection, a prosecution and a conviction and a District Court judge would have to say that it is not an appropriate case for the Probation Act. As for the point about getting drunk on one's own, I should tell Senator Norris about an instance where a senior counsel challenged the testamentary capacity of an elderly man in court. He put it to the witness in the case...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: What is being proposed is a softening measure. Effectively, Senator McDowell is canvassing the notion that the District Court could select a date for a closure order when it would be of negligible impact on the publican.

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: I am not disposed to do that. We will next be informed that it would be a good idea to adjourn driving disqualifications in order to allow people to emigrate. This is supposed to be a deterrent; it is not supposed to have no effect at all. The first offence involves closure for one day. Bearing in mind that there has to be a prosecution, conviction and decision by a District Court judge that...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: I am grateful to the Senator for raising this matter. Her position is consistent with that adopted by her party at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, when Deputy Deasy outlined the same general approach. This is not a question of my rowing back on anything; it is a question of my accepting the recommendations of the Liquor Licensing Commission. In...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Michael McDowell: It is not the 11.30 p.m. to 12.30 p.m. regime that is the real problem. I have to provide for a Garda force, rostered by the Commissioner, which has to combat very significant numbers of intoxicated people on our streets between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. This problem is a consequence of the special exemption order and the entertainment during drinking regime. It arises close to the changeover of...