Results 101-120 of 18,437 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (29 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: The effect of the amendment would be that where an asylum application had been found, on investigation at first instance by the independent Refugee Applications Commissioner, to be manifestly unfounded, the applicant should be entitled to an oral hearing. I do not agree with this proposal. If anything the system should be made more rigorous rather than being loosened in the manner suggested.

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: This amendment is opposed. The period within which to make an appeal against a recommendation under section 12 of the Refugee Act 1996 is currently ten working days from the sending of the notice of the recommendation. In the case of a negative recommendation on an application investigated under section 11 of the 1996 Act it is 15 working days from the date of the notice of the...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: The effect of this amendment would be to allow oral hearings to be conducted in public where the applicant so requested. Senators will be aware the Bill already contains an amendment to section 19(2) of the Refugee Act 1996 that removes the requirement for ministerial consent to publish or broadcast any matter likely to identify the person as an applicant. It will no longer be the case that...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: It is my understanding that the tribunal already has within its discretion the power to publish decisions, if it so wishes, with sufficient details obscured to preserve the anonymity of applicants. The effect of the amendment would be to require the tribunal to make available to the public copies of its decisions on appeals with identifying information deleted unless the applicant were to...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: These amendments are opposed because they are fundamentally at odds with the nature of the Dublin Convention as an instrument for determining which EU state – now including Iceland and Norway – is the proper one to examine a specific asylum claim. Before a person may be transferred under the convention, the commissioner is obliged to examine the relevant provisions of the convention,...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: Amendment No. 24 questions whether Dublin Convention cases would warrant an oral hearing. If there are matters that need to be explored more fully at appeal, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which deals with these appeals, may, under article 7.5 of the Dublin Convention Implementation Order 2000, direct the commissioner to make such inquiries and to provide it with such further information as it...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: These amendments make similar provisions in a number of significant respects regarding the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the chairperson of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, respectively. Each has two purposes: they make provision for a situation where through some unforeseen circumstance the office holder is temporarily unable to carry out the functions of the office; and they set out to...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: I have substantially addressed the reasons for my opposition to the amendment to amendment No. 23. As I stated, the proposed paragraph 17 enables the chairperson to issue guidelines and guidance notes on aspects of the work of the tribunal. This will assist with the efficient functioning of the tribunal and will be an important aid to the work of the various members of the tribunal,...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: As the Senator will probably be aware, the Supreme Court, in the matter of Article 26 of the Constitution and the provisions of sections 5 and 10 of the Illegal Immigrants Trafficking Bill 1999, has examined in great detail the provisions of section 5 of what is now the Illegal Immigrants Trafficking Act 2000. The court held that no provision of the section was repugnant to the Constitution....

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: The Senator is asking me to provide for an automatic right of appeal to the Supreme Court against a High Court decision. The answer is no because that would transfer the problem for another few months from one court to another. Almost all the applicants are legally aided. It costs them nothing to take a case but it costs the State in terms of paying for the applicant's lawyers and its own. It...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: This is a largely technical amendment. Its purpose is to restore to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform a power to prescribe the ports and airports at which non-nationals coming from a place outside the State can land. This is a matter of secondary legislation under the Aliens Act 1935 and worked effectively without controversy as part of the Aliens Order 1946, which was the...

Seanad: Immigration Bill, 2002: Committee Stage (Resumed). (30 Jan 2003)

Michael McDowell: I agree with the spirit of this amendment but not with the amendment itself. The law relating to enactments dealing with non-nationals is capable of being restated under the Statute Law (Restatement) Act, which has recently come into operation. The effect of that Act is that where a particular statute has been amended or can be found in a number of places, from time to time the Attorney...

Seanad: Immigration Bill 2002: Report Stage. (4 Feb 2003)

Michael McDowell: The primary purpose of the carrier liability provisions in the Bill is quite straightforward. Carriers which bring non-national passengers into the State should satisfy themselves that those passengers have with them the appropriate documentation to allow them to disembark at their destination – be it a port or airport – in accordance with Irish immigration requirements. For that to work...

Seanad: Immigration Bill 2002: Report Stage. (4 Feb 2003)

Michael McDowell: The amendment would insert in page 4, line 25, after the word "officers", the words "if required to do so by such directions (if any)". It would then read that the carrier concerned shall ensure that all persons on board the vehicle seeking to land in the State or to pass through a port in the State in order to travel to another state disembark in compliance with any direction given by...

Seanad: Immigration Bill 2002: Report Stage. (4 Feb 2003)

Michael McDowell: I oppose the amendment. Although I understand the intention behind it, which is to exempt those entitled to protection under the 1951 Act from the operation of the Bill, it would be unworkable. It would not be possible to determine at the point where a carrier had committed an offence under the subsection whether the person in question was or was not a person having a well-founded fear of...

Seanad: Immigration Bill 2002: Report Stage. (4 Feb 2003)

Michael McDowell: I am opposed to the amendment because it would introduce an absolute requirement on me to draw up and publish guidelines on a mandatory basis, instead of stating I should do so "from time to time". If the amendments were agreed to, the subsection would then state, "The Minister shall draw up and publish guidelines concerning steps to be taken by carriers to ensure compliance by them with this...

Seanad: Immigration Bill 2002: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 Feb 2003)

Michael McDowell: The effect of the Senator's amendment would be to put the position of an employer who employs someone unlawfully without a work permit on exactly the same basis in terms of potential punishment as an employee who works illegally without such a permit. It would prevent any of these offences from being tried on indictment, in the case of an employer, and it would limit the maximum fine that...

Seanad: Immigration Bill 2002: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 Feb 2003)

Michael McDowell: I oppose this amendment which relates to the period of time given to applicants for asylum status to notify the Refugee Applications Commissioner of a permanent address where he or she can be contacted, for example, if notices need to be sent out. If I accede to the amendment and it is accepted by the House, applicants will have 25 working days – five full weeks, or over one month – in...

Seanad: Immigration Bill 2002: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 Feb 2003)

Michael McDowell: This amendment is necessary to modify the language of the proposed section 11(8)(f). I refer to the phrase "non-compliance with this subsection", which I propose to replace with "non-compliance with that obligation". While the original wording may seem more clear, I understand the Department thinks that a certain infelicity of expression has crept into the section. I propose in the amendment...

Seanad: Immigration Bill 2002: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 Feb 2003)

Michael McDowell: I agree with Senator Morrissey. I explained to the House on Committee Stage that in order for an interview to be conducted, a series of events must happen: first, the officer conducting the interview must arrange, in many cases, for an interpreter to be present; second, in most cases, lawyers, or at any rate one lawyer, may be in attendance; and third, the would-be asylum seeker will have to...