Results 1-20 of 4,842 for garda speaker:Michael McDowell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (20 Feb 2024)

Michael McDowell: ...adviser to its own Minister. I think back to a time when I was Minister for Justice. It never occurred to me to appoint the Secretary General of the Department of Justice to be part of the Garda management or its oversight body. Is that consistent-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (20 Feb 2024)

Michael McDowell: ...is to advise the Minister and it is stated to be independence advice, yet his or her right-hand person is on the body that is supposed to give him independent advice. If I had tried that with An Garda Síochána, I would not have got away with it. That is all I am saying.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill: Discussion (13 Feb 2024)

Michael McDowell: ..., it is very frequently sought. We should be conscious in all of this that nobody is going to be convicted on AI. In the end, a jury, judge or whoever is going to have to get the testimony of a garda and look at the material themselves to see whether they accept all this. I accept there is a danger that people will be arrested and unfairly made a suspect if the technology is not good....

Seanad: Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...to be devised by the board. It seems that is a good idea but what I am increasingly worried about in respect of this Bill – I want to put it on the record – is the whole process of running An Garda Síochána is becoming more and more complicated. On the provisions of this Bill, I note the so-called independent Policing Authority is being replaced but the...

Seanad: Recent Violence in Dublin City Centre: Motion (29 Nov 2023)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister. There are a few things I want to say. It seems there is now a decent Garda presence in Dublin city. I said at a meeting of the justice committee that my business means that I traverse the city up to four times a day, moving from here to there. I see the absence of policing in Dublin. Gardaí are not there. They are not visible. They are not out on the street...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Nov 2023)

Michael McDowell: The public order Act also gives any member of An Garda Síochána the right to direct people to disperse and move away, failing which they will be arrested, in cases of disorder.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Nov 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...and his officers must ensure there is more visible policing. It increases public confidence and deters disorder. In that context, a matter I have raised previously with Mr. Harris is that the Garda Reserve had 1,100 members but is now down to 300 or 400 members. The plan is for it to have up to 2,000 members. If Mr. Harris wants visible policing and to double the number of apparent...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Nov 2023)

Michael McDowell: The Commissioner mentioned the difficulties of Garda man hours being wasted on going through manual inspections of CCTV footage. Can civilian employees be used to do this task? Detectives do not necessarily need to be involved in watching the footage, if the people who are doing it know what they are looking for.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Policing Matters: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Nov 2023)

Michael McDowell: It seems to me, going back to the comments I made about Ballybrack, that respect for An Garda Síochána, in some quarters, has evaporated. An impunity has developed incrementally on the part of people who confront gardaí. They will get away with disorder and conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace. In this context, I noticed an article in The Irish Timestoday about...

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (24 Oct 2023)

Michael McDowell: I apologise for being late as I was at a meeting of the justice committee. I ask the Minister to clarify a couple of points. When we hear the Garda appealing for dashcam footage from ordinary road users, is there any problem with the use of such material evidentially? I sometimes wonder whether I can go around my neighbourhood willy-nilly with my dashcam on or if there is any control on my...

Seanad: Final Report of the Independent Scoping Exercise into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Mr. Shane O'Farrell: Statements (17 Oct 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...shares their conviction that he should not have been driving that car on that occasion and would not have been driving that car on that occasion if the State had, through its organs, namely, An Garda Síochána and the court system, taken reasonable steps to impose upon that driver the common-sense requirements of criminal justice. They cannot put that out of their minds. They...

Seanad: Crime and Policing: Motion (27 Sep 2023)

Michael McDowell: I entirely support everything that is in the motion tabled by the Fianna Fáil Senators here today. I want to say at the outset, however, that I have full confidence in the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána. This House should respect him and support him because he is bringing about effective change in a force which I, as a former Minister for Justice, know needs reform and...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (4 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...else. That can of course be breached. However, here we are dealing with something which the Minister is saying merits a sentence of five years imprisonment in the legislation. A member of An Garda Síochána can without warrant arrest a person they suspect of having committed this offence. A person found to have deliberately leaked it can be fined €50,000. However, the...

Seanad: Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009: Motions (27 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...many people who are not in criminal gangs can even fire a rifle now and come to the Government's aid? We have stripped everything back down. The numbers in the Defence Forces are down, the numbers in the Garda Reserve are down and the numbers in the Civil Defence are down. It is about time we as a society took security seriously. I am not getting into NATO or any of those issues, but I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill: Department of Justice (20 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...determining facts. I am not suggesting that we reintroduce the personal injuries juries because those are non-deliberate facts. Character, intention and assessment of witnesses is essential if it is a Garda assault case, a conspiracy case, a defamation case and the like. When it comes to awards, I fully accept the point about recent Supreme Court decisions and introducing an element...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (13 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...On firefighters, I want to simply say that, as the Leader will be aware, this is part of a general malaise in Ireland whereby those who volunteer to serve the country are taking a hammering. The Garda Reserve is down to a quarter of its strength. The Army Reserve is way down to a pitiful level and Civil Defence numbers have gone down by more than half in the past few years. This group...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022: Second Stage (13 Jun 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...will cause that kind of reaction, they commit an offence punishable by five years' imprisonment. As a result of that, two things happen under the Criminal Law Act 1997. First, a member of An Garda Síochána can arrest and detain them and bring them to a Garda station, where they can be detained under the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. Second, any citizen can...

Seanad: Garda Reserve: Statements (31 May 2023)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister. I have been pressing for this debate for some time and I want to say a few things. When the Garda Reserve was originally canvassed in Dáil Éireann, it received all-party support. The one group that was opposed to it at the time was the Garda Representative Association, GRA. One of its officers said he would be waiting in the long grass for me as a result...

Seanad: Garda Reserve: Statements (31 May 2023)

Michael McDowell: Not agreed. I want to say one thing. We have had two Ministers in the House today. Not one number has been mentioned to us in the context of how many people it is intended to recruit to the Garda Reserve. That is a shame. I am not agreeable to the adjournment.

Seanad: Non-Fatal Offences against the Person (Amendment) (Spiking) Bill 2023: Second Stage (31 May 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...1997 Act does not allow for an arrest. That is the serious issue. An attempt to commit that offence does not allow for an arrest either. For instance, if you are spotted lacing somebody's drink, a garda does not have the right to arrest that person for attempted poisoning because the offence itself does not have a five-year minimum tariff. This requires action. The 1997 legislation is...