Results 41-60 of 4,842 for garda speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Nov 2021)

Michael McDowell: .... On totally different privacy grounds, the European Courts of Justice struck down that exact same directive. There is absolutely no reason now why, if a woman disappeared four years ago and the Garda get a tip off now, the Garda cannot go back to a reservoir of information to see if there was contact between a person now suspected of having had an involvement in that disappearance and...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...from having been where he is now and from having served as an Opposition Deputy, a Minister and Attorney General, that there is always a clamour for minimum sentences. It is said that if you hit a Garda, you must go to jail for a year, for example. Minimum sentences go down well with some parts of the media. At the time we were trying to address this matter, we were trying to deal with...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...is the punishment. It is unfair in certain circumstances. I am thinking of the fellow who has three drinks at his kid's communion party and proceeds to drive and is unfortunate enough to run into a garda. His job as a taxi driver goes up in smoke and his family is put on the dole as a consequence. Mandatory disqualification is very punitive but it works. Rehabilitation does not arise...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021: Second Stage (10 Nov 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...precinct which is at most three or four storeys. That is not the only such development. In Donnybrook village, there was an application for a skyscraper development on the site beside Donnybrook Garda station by Denis O'Brien's company. We are living in a confused state of affairs. Dublin City Council has been emasculated as regards its positive duty to have a vision for what Dublin...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (3 Nov 2021)

Michael McDowell: ..., I want to raise an issue of volunteerism and, in particular, to ask the Deputy Leader to seek the presence in this House of the Minister for Justice, when available, to discuss the issue of the Garda Reserve. The Garda Reserve is withering on the vine. When I was Minister for Justice and Equality, I had all-party support for its introduction. The recruitment process for the Garda...

Seanad: Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020: Motion (3 Nov 2021)

Michael McDowell: -----or every ten days or whatever it is and say this is what has happened over the last week? The Garda checkpoints are either justified or unjustified. The 5 km rule is either paying off or it is not. Vaccinations are having this effect or that effect. Schools are or are not a vector for infection. It is or is not safe to reopen this, that or the other in terms of universities or the...

Seanad: British Government Legacy Proposals: Motion (13 Oct 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...since 1976. As part of the Good Friday Agreement and its implementation, the Government, of which I was Attorney General and later Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, agreed that An Garda Síochána would not investigate historical crimes committed by members of the provisional movement anywhere on this island and it has not done so. I do not believe I have deprived...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...hearing would not be out of bounds for consideration, were it relevant, when the trial actually commenced. There are several possibilities as to how this would work. For instance, if a member of An Garda Síochána disputed a claim that he or she had intimidated a person into making a confession, that garda could be cross examined again in relation to the evidence he or she gave,...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...trial hearing shall have binding effect. It is all very well to say that a statement is going to be admissible or inadmissible but if that were interpreted as meaning, for example, that a garda had not made a threat to obtain a statement, it should not be applied as somehow saying that the matter has now been determined and the jury cannot consider that issue afresh. That is the point I...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...it is absurd that there is a recorder, a video and somebody taking down in longhand the questions and answers as they are given. I remember another anecdote relating to representing members of the Garda at disciplinary inquiries where the same procedure applied. The question was typed out by a two-finger typist, a sergeant clerk, and the answer was then typed out when it was given.The...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (26 Apr 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...out of the person who was forced or felt compelled to say that because of "X" or "Y"?If that is decided at a preliminary stage by a judge having heard the accused person and, say, the interviewing garda who is supposed to have made these remarks in the corridor outside the interview room, as I understand our jurisprudence at present, the standard of proof to get such a statement in is that...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (26 Apr 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...on the way into an interview room? If one person says that is exactly what the sergeant said, and the sergeant says he would never do anything of the sort, that he is an honourable member of An Garda Síochána and that that is an outrageous suggestion, what is the judge to do? Is he or she to say it is beyond a reasonable doubt that what he or she is being told did not occur,...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Second Stage (19 Apr 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...I wish to make relates to when there is a voir dire, a preliminary decision on the admissibility of evidence, which is what this is all about. If the issue is, for example, whether a member of An Garda Síochána said to the person outside the interview room that if he or she does not confess inside, his wife or her husband is going to be arrested and their children will be taken...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Victims' Testimony in Cases of Rape and Sexual Assault: Discussion. (23 Mar 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...a time when it was sometimes deployed and the accused simply never gave evidence. There is a case to be made for not allowing unsworn exculpatory explanations or statements made by the accused to gardaí investing the matter to come into evidence, especially if it is circumvented the sexual history prohibition that would normally be there. My question is for the practitioners and the...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Second Stage (18 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...with section 4 is the penalty provided, which is two years' imprisonment. This is in contrast with seven years provided for in section 2. One of the consequences of not thinking this through is that the capacity of the Garda to arrest, search, seize property, and interview people they suspect of having committed an offence under section 4 disappears, because under the Criminal Justice...

Seanad: Health (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...an occupier if the owner of the house also resides in that dwelling. That is the first mistake that has been made here. I also draw the Minister of State's attention to page 8 of the Bill which states: "where a member of the Garda Síochána suspects, with reasonable cause, that an event in contravention of a dwelling event provision is taking place, he or she may direct the...

Seanad: Health (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...I want to put it on record that it is for want of a proper definition in section 1 of who an "occupier" is. I also want it on the record that we are being asked to proceed with a Bill that will not work. Gardaí are being given bogus, dud, so-called powers, which will not work for the reason I will outline. On page 6 of the Bill the term "occupier" is defined as meaning "a person...

Seanad: HSE Winter Plan: Statements (7 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...the Minister of State and congratulate her on her appointment. At the outset, I should say that the winter plan is being presented to the House on a day when the Government is also asking An Garda Síochána to create havoc on the roads for many people, which is a very bad idea. It verges on the unlawful and all we must do is think for a moment what it would be like to be in a 4...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Sep 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...of 2020 relating to various matters particularly covering the consumption of alcohol, have not been subjected to adequate scrutiny. I echo the comments of Senator Higgins. Here we are giving the Garda powers to implement, supervise and enforce regulations, penalising those who do not implement, contrary to their duty, regulations that we have not really had the opportunity to consider or...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Sep 2020)

Michael McDowell: ..., welcome the Minister of State. I congratulate him on his appointment. I thank him for his offer to discuss with me the question of gambling. I assure Senator Conway that I am not opposed to An Garda Síochána being given powers to enforce the law in general terms. I have no doubt that An Garda Síochána will apply the powers it is being given with discretion and...