Results 101-120 of 725 for long speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (19 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: The purpose of this amendment is to insert into the Long Title of the Bill the word "advisory". In general terms, not too much attention is paid to the close test of the Long Title of a Bill. On this occasion, it is important because claims have been made for this legislation by one Member of Government that this will take the appointment of judges out of the hands of politicians and hand...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (19 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...those courts. That is an important philosophical and constitutional value to be emphasised and it is in that light that the two references to the recommendations being advisory are proposed to the Long Title, to make it very clear, lest anybody say at any time in the future that the Government was acting unlawfully or improperly by not accepting the recommendations of the commission, that...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (19 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: The purpose of amendment No. 2 is to make it clear in the Long Title to the Bill that the lay members should be a minority of the commission as constituted. At the moment Members will be aware that the Bill envisages at section 10 that it should consist of 17 members. In my view that is an unwieldy and unnecessarily large group of people and if the number of lay persons appointed under...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (19 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...of lay persons at a later point, and if one is going to propose amendment of the Bill by assiduously removing all the lay majority provisions in it, there is nothing incongruous about having the Long Title of the Bill reflect that state of affairs. The order in which these things are taken provides that this particular provision has to be taken now. It cannot be amended at the very end...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Report Stage (19 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...on this legislation from across the House to reconsider the matter, it should do so without regard to the proposition that this would represent a U-turn. On that basis, I believe that the Long Title of the Act should lay the ground for later amendments to ensure that the lay participation in the judicial appointments commission should be a minority.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...have suddenly applied for refugee status. The real reason is that it is our own fault that we have a system which entertains delay and creates the opportunity for people to pose as refugees for a long time when, in fact-----

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Nov 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...people stopped the virtue signalling and started talking about real solutions to real problems, including the culpability of the Irish State, which is not of this Government's making, but it is a long-standing problem with delays in this area.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...be to regulate and analyse our relationship with the European Union. I am not saying this to be critical of the Leader or the Government. Governments have lived on the back of British efforts for a long time. We will have to up our game, not just in the Rugby World Cup but for the long term and also in Europe.

Seanad: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Statements (1 Oct 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...as Bill Cash, Mark Francois and all the others, leapt on that as a reason to reject her withdrawal agreement. We are codding ourselves if we do not ask this question. Given the night of the long knives he inflicted on the Tory establishment, which has left him in a decidedly minority position, what kind of deal could he now bring back to Westminster that would command a majority? What...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...of consequences for ordinary individuals. I am a liberal and have no problem with people mocking the religious views of others if they so wish. It has been part of society on these islands for a long time. Popery and Protestantism were the subject of mutual abusive remarks for many years at the highest and lowest levels of public discourse. The utterance of words directed at one side...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...of time as the rest of us if he will contribute to this debate, especially in view of the absence to date of any proper response to the report, which has been in the hands of the Government now for so long.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: I do not want to get into a discussion of earnings of individual broadcasters, but anybody who listens to the radio a good deal, as I have done for a long time, and who listens to the advertisement slots on RTÉ must be struck by the fact that nearly all of the advertisements are now either self-advertisements or advertisements for semi-State bodies and that the great majority of...

Seanad: Seanad Reform Implementation Group: Statements (24 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: I wish to politely welcome the Minister of State and note that he indicated that he is in listening mode, which is simply not good enough at this stage. Listening has gone on for a long time. The time for action and implementation has arrived, as has the time for ending the pretence that Fine Gael has any interest in reforming the Seanad. There is no appetite in Fine Gael for reforming the...

Seanad: Seanad Reform Implementation Group: Statements (24 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...constituencies. I was in Belfast recently with Senator Marshall and I visited at the vacant senate chamber in Stormont. It is now widely understood in Northern Ireland that it needs a forum along the lines of this House, to which members of civil society would be elected on non-party lines by the electorate generally to represent various interests. That is desirable to bring forward...

Seanad: Seanad Reform Implementation Group: Statements (24 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: -----to this Government what it richly deserves to have done to it; kick it out, because it is a shamefully dishonest Government, which has conned the Irish people long enough.

Seanad: Parole Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...dissatisfaction with the implications of sentencing policy and early release. One need only consider the well-known Lough Inagh murder case of Shaw and Evans, in which a life sentence meant very long life sentences for two offenders convicted of murder, to realise that there are certain things which can be put on the scales in determining whether or not to grant parole or to allow...

Seanad: Summer Economic Statement 2019: Statements (26 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...close to full employment, there are ambitious infrastructural plans outlined to the Irish people for the next 20 to 30 years, including some which are needed in the short run rather than the long run. For instance, if one looks at the plans and figures for social and affordable housing, although public housing is a better phrase to describe it, the suggestion is that 20,000 extra...

Seanad: National Minimum Wage (Protection of Employee Tips) Bill 2017: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...the Bill, the Government should cure it. The Government cannot simply say it has its own proposal. That simply does not wash any more from a Government which has not acted on this matter for a long period and does not have a majority in any event to push through its own legislation or amendments. It is dependent on the goodwill and support of others to get any legislation through. I...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: I slightly disagree with Senator Craughwell on that. My view is that one can differentiate between serving judges and other persons who have never been appointed. I have no problem with that as long as there is some capacity to distinguish between different types of serving judges applying for judicial office. It is strange to say that a District Judge who wanted to be an ordinary judge of...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Jun 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...or she is suitable to be recommended for appointment to the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court? Are we going to ask the candidates if they are energetic? Are we going to ask them if they take long with their cases? Are we going to ask them if they have many reserved judgments?