Results 181-200 of 725 for long speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...of people's homes, etc. These are life changing decisions. It is a very demanding job. If person goes into such a job with a weak heart, such that he or she is unlikely to be able to manage day long sessions and late night sittings on certain occasions, then he or she should really not be appointed, regardless of whether he or she should apply in the first place. The equality principle...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Michael McDowell: No. I am looking for a rough timeframe. How long will it take from the passage of the Bill by the two Houses - let us take that as our start point - to the establishment of the commission?

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

Michael McDowell: ...to allow somebody to be convicted of an offence of dishonesty without allowing him or her the right to trial by jury. Is this a purely theoretical legal point? It is not. Some of us are long enough in the tooth to remember when the head of the Young Liberals in England, Mr. Peter Hain, who later became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was set up for a shoplifting offence where...

Seanad: Civil Law (Costs in Probate Matters) Bill 2017: Second Stage (8 May 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...a growing problem. Recently, the President of the High Court said that one would need to be either a millionaire, billionaire or pauper to go to law voluntarily these days. I will not dwell too long on how legal fees have grown, but they have increased. I know that from my own experience. As a consequence, any kind of case in the Circuit Court or High Court can be very expensive and...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Commissioner Phil Hogan (26 Apr 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...context but Mr. Hogan knows what I am talking about. We are, however, coming to the moment of truth. Senator Richmond has made the point, as has the Commissioner, that Ireland must take a long hard look at our relationship with Europe. I believe that the Hanseatic League of the Nordic and Baltic states and the other states that are less popular at the moment - the Visegrad Group - and...

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Mar 2018)

Michael McDowell: I wish to comment on what Senator Horkan said about an hour and a half not being long enough to consider councillors' conditions. If it is any consolation to him, I will not be contributing to that debate.

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Mar 2018)

Michael McDowell: It is extraordinary to see the speed with which these kinds of buildings can be built because there are tax incentives and there is a green light for them. One then asks oneself why it takes so long to build accommodation for other classes of the community. I fully accept the point that if a student is accommodated, some other property is not required elsewhere and, therefore, it has a...

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Report Stage (22 Mar 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...looking at it from that point of view. There is now an explicit reference to a referendum commission carrying out a processing of political opinions. I would make one observation on that. It is a long-established phenomenon in politics that people lie in retrospect about what they did in elections and referenda when they are surveyed afterwards. John Kennedy scrapped home with a tiny...

Seanad: Data Protection Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...aware of these problems as well. In that context, we are required to consider what is the appropriate digital age of consent. For example, should it be set at 13, as it is in the United Kingdom alongside its special statutory protective measures, which we have not yet put in place, or, should it be set at 16, as it is in France, Germany and the Netherlands? I do not rubbish anybody...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Feb 2018)

Michael McDowell: Are all the long trams we are now buying to be redundant or what is to happen to them? The Leader knows everything so I ask my question in a spirit of curiosity.Will the Leader ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport or a Minister of State at that Department to come into the House to explain to us whether the green line will be abolished as part of this process, whether tram and...

Seanad: Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018: Second Stage (Resumed) (30 Jan 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...will come back to this before the summer and in Government time, and the clear opportunity for us to amend the Bill to say that it is to be the law in Ireland but that its operation may be suspended as long as the Government of Ireland continues to certify six monthly that progress is being made on behalf of the Palestinian people and the two-state solution, the Bill will have achieved...

Seanad: Public Service Pay and Pensions Bill 2017: Second Stage (12 Dec 2017)

Michael McDowell: ...made an important point in that if the pensionable age is to be raised to 70, a Deputy who gave the best of her or his life in 20 years' service from the ages of 30 to 50 is going to have to wait a long time to see the benefit of any accrued pension if 70 becomes the starting point. In law, the Supreme Court has ruled that pensions are deferred remuneration. We have to realise that in...

Seanad: Judicial Council Bill 2017: Second Stage (22 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: ...accepted standards of judicial conduct" might be more objective than "acknowledged standards". With these few remarks, I congratulate the Minister for bringing the Bill through. I regret it took so long for it to be put before the Houses. Subject to the Minister's points about revisiting some of the sections of the Bill with a view to their improvement, given that these Houses sometimes...

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: ...on television advertisements that is recognised generally as a warning? I find it very annoying that at the end of every advertisement for anything to do with the financial sector there is a long announcement about who controls and regulates it, terms and conditions apply, and all the rest of it. Most people switch off at that bit. How will this affect television advertising and radio...

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Michael McDowell: Let us be clear about one thing a Chathaoirligh. We have agreed with the Leader of the House that we are going to sit for as long as necessary to get this through. The Senator is going to have to listen to a debate. Three or four hours is not going to kill the Senator. We have to get this law right and we have to make it reasonable. No matter how passionately the Senator believes in her...

Seanad: Future of Europe: Statements (12 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: ...it is improbable. One only has to look to the United States of America to see what huge federal parties did. The Democrats in America became the most reactionary and pro-segregationist party for a long time. At the same time, liberal democrats in New England were an entirely different breed. America was a sort of coalition of people but at least they spoke the same language and could...

Seanad: Northern Ireland: Statements (11 Oct 2017)

Michael McDowell: ...it puts pressure on the political faultlines between the two parts of the island. If we are in the business of reconciliation which I believe is the ultimate republican virtue, we should take a long hard look - I say this particularly to members of Sinn Féin - at how reconciliation would, in fact, be brought about.We had a civil war in this country. Something I discovered in...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Sep 2017)

Michael McDowell: I hope they do not have to wait as long as people do for Irish driver tests.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Seanad Reform (27 Jun 2017)

Michael McDowell: ...say that matters are ongoing in June, more than six months later, is, frankly, ridiculous. If there was any appetite for moving ahead with the implementation group, it would have been progressed long before now. The Minister of State has drawn attention to the extension of the franchise to Irish citizens living abroad for presidential elections.Last weekend, I saw in the papers a...

Seanad: Mid-term Capital Review and Public Service Pay Commission Report: Statements (30 May 2017)

Michael McDowell: ..., Omagh and other places. Now is the time to factor that into the negotiations which will take place in the context of the United Kingdom's decision to depart. On housing, it is undoubtedly the case that in decades long gone by, the State, confronted with the tenement crisis in Dublin, was able to organise a housing drive which was very significant. While it was not perfect in that...