Results 1-20 of 59 for destroyed speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Special Measures in the Public Interest (Derrybrien Wind Farm) Bill 2023: Second Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Michael McDowell: ...cheque." That is the simple solution. I do not expect the people in Ballaghaderreen suddenly to become electricity generation experts. All I want is that this valuable €200 million investment is not destroyed. We all inspected the Slieve Aughty mountains and saw what it would take to restore this land. All I want is that that operation, which will create massive further...

Seanad: Special Measures in the Public Interest (Derrybrien Wind Farm) Bill 2023: Second Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Michael McDowell: ...done something sooner. The Government should apologise for that but please, let common sense re-assert itself and let this valuable piece of national infrastructure be kept in place, rather than destroyed in an act of "Alice in Wonderland" nonsense on stilts. I am sorry the Minister of State is rejecting this legislation but when the damage is done on the top of that mountain again, this...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Oct 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...in this regard. Those of us who supported the Bill, and there was support for it right across this House at the time, were making a stance against the circumstances that were leading to the hatred that is destroying the Middle East. We were standing up for the rule of international law. We were not helped by the Government because it was afraid of being seen as an outlier on the issue...

Seanad: Situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Motion (18 Oct 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...for clearance by at least half of the people of Gaza, which has 2.2 million people, and they want them to move south. What happens when they move into that area? Will the Israeli Defense Forces destroy it? Will Hamas be there to fight them, or will Hamas do what it is best at, which is hiding among civilians and going south with them? What happens when they eventually do catch up with...

Seanad: Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (16 Feb 2023)

Michael McDowell: ..., or could be hostile, and the individual is left by him or herself to fend off a charge of personal culpability. In circumstances where the man or the woman on the receiving end of an investigation is in her his or her 40s, a prohibition order will destroy his or her career completely. I am aware all of these things have to be confirmed, but it is a bit too late to say a person can go...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Jun 2022)

Michael McDowell: ...justified. We now have what I and the movers of this amendment consider to be a wholly unjustified situation where more damage will be done to the environment, valuable resources will be wasted and badly needed wind energy infrastructure will be decommissioned and destroyed,all to make a point that at the very beginning an environmental impact assessment should have been carried out. I...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Jun 2022)

Michael McDowell: ...route. While I may not be the Attorney General anymore, if I were, I would put my thinking cap on and I could draft legislation that would not impose an Alice in Wonderland piece of nonsense on us that would destroy infrastructure, which, as my colleagues have said, nearly everybody thinks should be there and generating electricity, simply to show that we should take European law seriously.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Mar 2022)

Michael McDowell: ...ask is this an industry that we want to encourage? I am against it. I am a liberal but I am against it because I see the damage it is doing to many people, including good friends of mine who have been destroyed by gambling addiction. I am not a gambler myself, just in case anybody thinks I am a zealot. Whereas this Bill brings in possibilities of control, the general scheme seems to be...

Seanad: Remote Working Strategy: Motion (15 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: ...I thought of what it would be like to commute by bicycle from Kildare during the last week. Commuting eats up whole swathes of people's lives, even in the greater Dublin area. Traffic jams and so on destroy people's daily lives if they also have to bring kids to crèches and schools, get food in the evening, collect kids, visit elderly parents and all the rest. The crippling...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...so that the members can have as full an account as possible to assist them in preparing their report. Audio recordings were made on tape but participants were assured that the tape would be destroyed once the confidential committee member was satisfied that they understood what had been told to them. The terms of reference continued: What sort of findings will the confidential committee...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: Second Stage (14 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...people who were told that what they said would remain secret as far as their identity was concerned, forever. I remind the Minister that even the tape recordings of some of their interviews were destroyed afterwards. These people deserve justice. I ask the Minister to consider the amendments that I and my colleagues have put down because they are the minimum that is required to deal...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 Dec 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...in respect of what is happening in Xinjiang province where the Uighurs are being herded into concentration camps and treated in an abominable way. Their human rights are being systematically destroyed, they are being politically brainwashed, told to speak Chinese rather than their native language, and they are, effectively, being kept in until they mend their ways, which means they cease...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...for the Electricity Supply Board, in which I think the State is still a shareholder, to come before the House to explain the reason for the following: when, in the 1960s, the board had destroyed the longest single stretch of Georgian architecture in Dublin by putting up a hideous office block on Fitzwilliam Street, it then had the opportunity to rectify the damage it had done. Deputy Jim...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Financial Implications of the Petroleum and Other Minerals (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill 2018: Discussion (11 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...and non-renewable energy can be determined by Government policy, including carbon taxes and the like. We are dealing with a simple question about whether we should expose ourselves to a massive crisis which could destroy the country economically simply on a point of principle and in furtherance of a gesture. Does the Minister of State agree with the points I am making?

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (17 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...are going to be learned from it and we are not going to have equivalent destruction of our architectural heritage and iconic monuments due to a lack of taking reasonable steps to prevent fires from destroying them in the manner that happened in Notre Dame.

Seanad: Perjury and Related Offences Bill 2018: Committee Stage (17 Apr 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...overly dramatic but it is important that there are sanctions for telling lies on oath, not merely in court, but also in an affidavit that is going to influence the outcome of a court case. If a person has destroyed or falsified a document or affidavit of discovery, this can be of great importance. The Minister has said that he has in excess of 100 pieces of legislation sitting on his...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...and on foot of its own responsibility as to who it should recommend to the President. It is a simple matter and it is not a question of a parallel process. The purpose of this Bill seems to be to destroy all incoming information to the Government as to the real position and give a false view as to what the choices really are or who is really available. It also affects information to the...

Seanad: Gambling Legislation: Motion (27 Feb 2019)

Michael McDowell: ..., and up to now, that we have not taken this issue by the scruff of the neck with a view to dealing with it. All the social consequences, and I know of them, suicides, ruination, people's careers being destroyed and all the rest that flow from an unregulated gambling industry in this country are there for us all to see. Collectively, in these Houses, we really should have it on our...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Bill 2017: Report and Final Stages (30 May 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...by successive Attorneys General on the basis that the reputational consequence of being convicted of theft, even for stealing a chocolate bar from one's local shop, is of such gravity that it could destroy a person's career or require a person to resign office. In the course of the various debates that have been held on the legislative process on this issue, I remember there are more than...