Results 521-540 of 18,463 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I wish to make a point about this section, if I may. I got a ruling from the Chair today that three of my amendments were out of order, which came as a bit of a surprise given that one of them had previously been debated extensively in the House as part of the previous iteration of the Bill.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I find it odd that the amendment is now found to be beyond the scope of this Bill. I will take up the matter with the Cathaoirleach. However, I will say that one of those amendments is very important. The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Judicial Council Bill and there is a mistake in that legislation which needs urgent amendment. I am more relaxed about my third amendment. I want to...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I just find it strange that on one of the few occasions that I was not here during Committee Stage of the previous Bill, one of the amendments I have tabled here today was debated and the then Minister, Deputy Flanagan, said it was an important issue which he might consider including on Report Stage, and I am now told the issue cannot even be discussed. That is strange.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: Yes.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: This is an important amendment which I support. It clearly sets out that the selection of persons to serve in judicial office is based on merit, which is in the Bill already, but also "is free from political patronage". Two points occur to me. I do not accept that, for instance, in deciding which of three people should be recommended for appointment to the Supreme Court, the Government of...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: Briefly arising out of that, I am a bit mystified by some of the provisions of this Bill and I have studied it more carefully. One of these provision is section 42. Section 42(1) provides: The Minister may request the Commission to make recommendations for appointment or for nomination for appointment to judicial office, as the case may be, where— (a) a judicial office stands...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: Yes, but I am talking about what the Labour Party amendment is about, which is the appointment of people. I am not trying to waste time at all and I will be very brief. Section 51 seems to confine the Government to considering "recommended persons only" but section 42 seems to say that the Minister has a discretion as to whether he looks for recommendations in the first place. I wonder how...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I can understand that is the purpose of the Bill. Section 51(1) seems on the face of it to say that a person could be appointed who had been recommended by the commission but was not recommended on this occasion. The provision seems ambiguous and I am interested in that aspect. Maybe we will come back to it later when we discuss the section.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 2: In page 8, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following: “ “practitioner representative” means a practising member of the solicitors or barristers profession nominated by the Law Society of Ireland or the General Council of the Bar of Ireland, as the case may be, and appointed by the Minister;”. Amendment No. 2 is in the names of...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I will raise two points. First, the suggestion, as Senator Ward pointed out, that the Judicial Council members will somehow represent the diversity of the professions is just not statable as a proposition because the two nominees will be one male and one female nominee, one of whom, at the time of his or her appointment as a judge, will have come from the solicitor’s profession while...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: Senator Ward has tabled an amendment to do that. It is amusing because the Bill, as it stands at present, means there will be a deadlock. The four lay people will obviously listen carefully to the judges as a group. They will not come in say, “We are the lay people, and we have this candidate” and the Judiciary will not say, “Well this is our person”. I believe...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: The Minister has said that it is usual for people to interview for positions. Take the position of a lecturer or professor in a university. It is extremely unusual to say that the only groups of people who cannot be there at the interview board are lecturers or professors. That is what we are doing here. As Senator Ward said, if someone is to be appointed to a medical position, it is...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I am pressing the amendment.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 3: In page 10, line 27, to delete “9 members” and substitute “11 members”.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I find myself in the same position as Senator Ward. I find myself put down as a co-sponsor of an amendment that has been proposed for a very different reason by Senator Higgins. I am very happy to co-operate with her in any sensible way but I want to put on the record that my signature to this amendment, and those of my fellow Independent Senators, is for the precise opposite reason to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill 2022: Discussion (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I thank all our witnesses. As somebody who had experience of Ministerial responsibility for the Prison Service, I am convinced of several things. I am convinced that this legislation is necessary and that the prison visiting committees need to be strengthened and reformed. I am also convinced that the chief inspector should be somebody who has been made independent by statute. I do not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill 2022: Discussion (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I agree with Ms Brady on one point and that is that short prison sentences should rarely, if ever, happen. The blight, especially on younger people, of being sentenced to prison, particularly when prisons are drug infested, violent and have no proper system of rehabilitation, and we must bear in mind the figure that we heard for the number of people in prison on remand. I agree with Ms...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill 2022: Discussion (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: --

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill 2022: Discussion (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: The prison needs to be replaced. Playing fields, running tracks and things like that need to be provided for people who are genuinely in need of rehabilitation as well as proper facilities. Rehabilitation is not going to happen in Mounjoy Prison so we must cop on and accept that the institution must be replaced. We must bear in mind that we have a growing population, which has moved...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill 2022: Discussion (18 Oct 2022)

Michael McDowell: I have not been to see it yet.