Results 18,721-18,736 of 18,736 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage. (18 Dec 2002)

Michael McDowell: The Dublin Convention applies to movement inside the Union.

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage. (18 Dec 2002)

Michael McDowell: I am interested in the variety of views being expressed. Let us look at Article 26 of the Schengen acquis, of which Ireland is a contracting party, which states: The Contracting Parties undertake, subject to the obligations arising out of their accession to the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951 relating to the Status of Refugees, as amended by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967, and in...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage. (18 Dec 2002)

Michael McDowell: One has to bring common sense to bear on these matters.

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage. (18 Dec 2002)

Michael McDowell: We do that kind of thing in the real world. Common sense requires that carriers do not fly people around Europe or across the Atlantic if there is a chance that they will have to fly them back again at their own expense.

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage. (18 Dec 2002)

Michael McDowell: This measure is not extra-territorial in its effect. If airlines want to check people as they arrive into Irish airspace, they are perfectly free to do so. If they want to organise their airlines on the basis that they only check documentation as an aeroplane lands in Dublin, they are perfectly free to do so. The reality, however, is that no airline will conduct its business in this manner,...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage. (18 Dec 2002)

Michael McDowell: I have already told Senator Ryan that in the real world people will not be checked when an aircraft has landed on the runway at Dublin Airport. The time for airlines to comply with their obligations is at the point of embarkation. That is where they will have make their judgment. If people are given an exemption at that point on the basis of refugee status, it can only be either that the...

Seanad: Crime Levels: Statements. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: I welcome this opportunity to address the House on the issue of crime. It is a broadranging issue and obviously, from what has transpired just before my arrival, many Senators have a great deal to say on different aspects of today's debate. I will watch my back on the monitors but I think I am all right.

Seanad: Crime Levels: Statements. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: On a serious note, I have been encouraged by the positive and understanding nature of this debate.

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Passports for Investment Scheme. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: —and that during that period the report to which he referred in extenso and with which he shows a degree of familiarity, namely, the Cole report, was in the possession of the then Minister for Justice, Mrs. Nora Owen.

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Passports for Investment Scheme. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: At the time she had all the material which he, then a Member of Dáil Éireann, is now asking me to start investigating. Nothing new has come to light. It is somewhat strange that I am now being asked to do something which, when much fresher and closer to the event, was manifestly not done by the Senator's party when it had the opportunity to do so. Why? No satisfactory explanation has been...

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Passports for Investment Scheme. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: If Senator Hayes's point is that a different view must be taken of the matter now because of what we know from the tribunals, it has some validity. However, he will remember that his colleagues in Dáil Éireann made the point that it should have been apparent in 1997, before the tribunals were established, that this was a reason not to appoint of Mr. Burke. He cannot have it every way. I am...

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Passports for Investment Scheme. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: The Senator proposes the establishment of an interdepartmental inquiry to investigate whether decisions to grant naturalisation in 11 cases were validly grounded. There is little point in following that course. I put it to him that the idea of me asking either Mr. Burke or Mr. Haughey to explain their role in this matter is naive and childish.

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Passports for Investment Scheme. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: I have spoken to officials in my Department.

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Passports for Investment Scheme. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: I am making the point that the idea that I would receive a reply to a letter which would allow me to return to the House with an explanation is naive. In the first place, I have indicated to the Dáil previously that the former Minister for Justice, Mrs. Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, commissioned a report into this matter during her term of office. The investigation was carried out by a senior...

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Passports for Investment Scheme. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: As the Senator is aware, the Cole report, to which he referred extensively, was leaked to the newspapers. I do not understand what point is being made. Am I to publish something which appeared in the newspapers in September 1997?

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Passports for Investment Scheme. (24 Oct 2002)

Michael McDowell: I presume The Irish Times had the Cole report. The investigation was carried out by a senior departmental official. Although the former Minister for Justice, Mrs. Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, resigned from office before the report became available, it became available during the term of office of Mrs. Nora Owen.