Results 21-40 of 18,815 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: It was the Minister who introduced the question of insurance companies. He said he wished they would take a different and more robust attitude to claims of this kind. It was not me or any of the other Senators who raised that. He now comes in and says we cannot have a law which is dictated by insurance companies. In defence of saying that seriousness does not apply, he said that perhaps...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: Lasting.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I am interested in the amendments proposed by Senator Higgins. Two things occur to me that we should consider at this Stage in this House. The phrase “is likely to cause” is itself ambiguous. The Minister has probably come across cases in his practice - I certainly have - where the term “likely” has to be interpreted. To a layperson, "likely" can mean...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: Perhaps this is a first, but I was looking at AI on my phone-----

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: -----in the context of getting the legal meaning of the term "likely". It is stated that the term can mean "more probable than not" and that there is "a reasonable possibility". In answer to a question as to whether I could fall down the stairs, one could answer that it is a reasonable possibility. In answer to a question as to whether I will fall down the stairs, one could say that it...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: Section 11 is not agreed.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: If the Cathaoirleach wants votes all afternoon, Senator Craughwell said it was not agreed. Perhaps he was not heard.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I have to say to the Chair that it is a section of huge importance. Rattling off sections in the way the Chair has is most unfair, especially if a Senator says it is "not agreed" and he is bulldozed out of the way.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: If the Cathaoirleach wants votes all afternoon on every comma in this Bill, he will get it now. If the House wants to go back to section 11, it is entitled to do so, as the Chair well knows.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I am not against efficiency.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: Just so everyone knows, Senator Craughwell and I spent an hour talking about this section this morning and came here with the express intention of opposing it.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I strongly urge the Minister to reconsider this particular amendment. This amendment to the Act of 2009 was tendered in the course of the Dáil debate by the Minister. It is not referred to, as far as I can see, in the original explanatory memorandum and it actually promises a very radical effect of change in the defamation law of this country. The House should be made aware that back...

Seanad: Support for Ukraine: Motion (14 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Fianna Fáil Members for tabling this important motion. Those of us in the Seanad Independent Group had put down a similar motion, which was much less elaborate, on 22 September to the same effect. I thank those Members who have also tabled amendments to the motion. It is important that this House speaks frequently on this subject. While you can illuminate the outside of...

Seanad: Support for Ukraine: Motion (14 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 5: In page 7, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following: “PART 4 DEFAMATORY STATEMENT 6. Section 2 of the principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution of the following for the definition of “defamatory statement” appearing in that section: “ ‘defamatory statement’ means a statement that tends to cause harm...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I will come back to them at a later stage. We are not on Report Stage yet. I will be proposing them later.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: The Minister has proposed in section 8 that there should be a provision which deals slightly with the circumstances we are discussing here but it is inadequate. There is not much point in waiting until section 8 is reached to point out that it is no answer to the points that have been raised by Senators. It proposes to extend the defence of qualified privilege to situations where the...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I am grateful to the Minister for his reply. I am also grateful to him for quoting from his own officials' view about what people in the Attorney General's office have said. That is a first, I have to say.

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: I would say there will be a salvo coming the Minister's way from Merrion Street for doing that. However, it answers the question in that I had suspected there was a notion that the serious harm threshold was regarded with suspicion by what I consider to be extremely conservative legal advice. I will give an example to Members of the House. If somebody called me a paedophile, that would be...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Michael McDowell: They are very welcome.