Results 141-160 of 725 for long speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Feb 2019)

Michael McDowell: There was no absence of process. Under the Bill, the process is one involving an absence of judges for long periods and a trickle-down effect whereby a vacancy is created in court after court. There is no absence of process whatever in the former arrangement. The Government would be well advised to ensure that if it creates a vacancy at one level of the Judiciary, it acts smartly to fill...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Feb 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...court from which the appointment is made. There is nothing wrong with the Cabinet addressing its mind to that and it works well. However, what will be wrong is if that kind of process becomes elongated and a whole lot of civil lawyers, for instance, see a vacancy in the Court of Appeal arising from the appointment of one of its prominent criminal law experts to the Supreme Court, and...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Feb 2019)

Michael McDowell: No.If it is amended and accepted, it will deal with part of the argument that Senator Craughwell and I have made. This could have been diffused a long time ago if the Minister had indicated that. There is nothing to stop him from writing a letter to Senator Craughwell, me or any other Senator indicating that he is disposed to accept a particular amendment. Why do we constantly operate in...

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

Michael McDowell: There is no long list.

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

Michael McDowell: Under the Bill, there is no long list.

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

Michael McDowell: The reason I say there is no such thing as a long list is currently, the JAAB advises the Government of the people who applied, and of the people it considers suitable for an appointment. Sitting judges do not come into the equation. What is proposed under this Bill is that the only communication that the newly formed judicial appointments commission gives to the Government is, what I call,...

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

Michael McDowell: If Senator Norris was short-listed for that job in Trinity, it would not have implied that there was a long list. The commission will advise the Government of the three people they consider suitable-----

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

Michael McDowell: ...appointed to a vacancy in the Supreme Court? There is nothing undesirable about that but this is the result of the convoluted thought process at which we have arrived today. It has gone on for a long time and it has made perfect sense because it is a necessary outworking of the Government's discretion to find out whether that discretion can reasonably be exercised in one direction or...

Seanad: Criminal Law (Extraterritorial Jurisdiction) Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: If I am going to be trampled down here, we are going to have a very long debate.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...is that it does not simply provide that there be a shortlist. I would have no problem with there being a shortlist. Indeed, many people think the list submitted by the JAAB was far too long in some cases, although for most senior positions it was not overly long according to my recollection, nominating between five and eight candidates on many occasions. The shortlist is not the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ..., as that would interfere with the so-called level playing pitch. I listened to the Minister's disposition. It reminded me of F. E. Smith, Lord Birkenhead, when he was a cheeky barrister making a long submission before a particular judge. The judge was an irascible and impatient man. He told Mr. Smith that, having listened to him for an hour, he was none the wiser, to which Mr. Smith...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Garda Reserve (24 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...uniformly awful. The reason the numbers have declined so spectacularly is that they were made to feel redundant, unwanted and in many cases actually shunned. They turned up to perform their duties and were left standing there, one arm as long as the other, with nothing to do. The general attitude which percolated down to them through An Garda Síochána was that their services...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...of appointments being made in a unconstitutional manner. The second is that the fact that whether a challenge might be made depends largely on who is likely to make it. Without going into an overly long discussion on the matter, we must consider who is likely to make a challenge of this kind. The person who is most likely to do so is somebody who is directly affected by the legislation....

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...have served on the High Court for the past five or seven years and demonstrated that this is the kind of judge he or she is but the Government may decide, so be it, the judge is independent and as long as he or she is not behaving in a manner which would warrant his or her removal, it is stuck with that judge. That is what the independence of the Judiciary is all about. FÌat...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: I welcome any indication of flexibility on the issues that have been raised. The Minister should remember something. He pointed out that this has been a long debate and that these matters have been raised before. Like me or any other Senator, he has been in a position to table additional amendments to cater for these issues in order that we might discuss them on Committee Stage. He has...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Jan 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...some of the issues I have raised, the first debate is going to take place in the august Cabinet room where, thus far, there is at least one person who appears to believe that the points being made along these lines are being made in bad faith and solely for the purpose of perpetuating cronyism, etc. I really would like to deal with the specifics the Minister to which the Minister...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...have a written Constitution. It vests in the Executive the function of advising the President. That is superior to any Bill we can wave at each other in these Houses. It cannot be curtailed. As long as one is eligible, that is one thing. If a Bill had been introduced that went so far as to state determination by the commission was a criterion for eligibility, it would clearly have...

Seanad: Conflict in Yemen: Motion (19 Dec 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...recently, is "Lords of the Desert", which describes the Anglo-American involvement in the Arabian peninsula. To put it mildly, "Lords of the Desert" does not make pretty reading. It is a long description of exploitation, selfishness, intrigue and viciousness. While the Americans and British are our allies, when President Trump says he is more concerned about €120 billion in arms...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...it be discontinued, there would be certain implications arising from that. It is an informal arrangement with no legislative basis, which seeks to address the problem of sitting judges writing long letters to politicians extolling their own virtues. I have no problem with that. Members of the Judiciary do not have to do a sales job on themselves to members of Government. For this...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2018)

Michael McDowell: ...on a list when all of them are eligible, ex officio, to be members of the Supreme Court and to sit as a member of the Supreme Court if called upon to do so by the Chief Justice. Why are we doing all of this? It is a long time now since we considered the views of the European Commission on interference with judicial independence. It seems like it was almost months ago since we discussed...