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Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (24 May 2021)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister to the House and I endorse the remarks made around the House on his personal achievements as Minister. He has not, as Senator Ward said, been there for years. He has been there for less than a year and during that year he has had a torrid time. Cowardly keyboard warriors have used anonymity in the most vile campaign of abuse against him and I totally dissociate...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Tax Compliance (30 Apr 2021)

Michael McDowell: I thank the Minister for coming to the House and the Chair for listing this Commencement matter. According to the tax and duty manual, under the capital acquisitions tax part 15 on insurance policies and in particular under sections 72 and 73 of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Act, it is possible to put in place an insurance policy, the purpose of which is to meet the anticipated...

Seanad: Criminal Procedure Bill 2021: Committee Stage (26 Apr 2021)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister of State to the House and express my appreciation for the amendment made to the Order of Business today in respect of this Bill. I will make a few points in respect of the Bill. First, I think this Bill needs to be more carefully considered than perhaps it was in Dáil Éireann. They had a debate there and a number of amendments were put down by the Sinn...

Seanad: Children (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2021)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 1: To delete subsections (1) and (2) and substitute the following: “(1) The Children Act 2001 is amended by the substitution of the following for section 252: “Anonymity of child in court proceedings 252.(1) Subject to this section, in relation to any proceedings for an offence against a child or where a child is a witness in any...

Seanad: Children (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2021)

Michael McDowell: The Minister has just said that it is best practice to amend the Act in the way she has suggested. I disagree fundamentally with that. It is not best practice to do that. It is inferior and worse practice, in my respectful view. The Minister said correctly that section 26 of the Interpretation Act would be engaged by taking the steps of accepting the amendment in our names, but it is...

Seanad: Children (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (1 Mar 2021)

Michael McDowell: I agree with Senator Higgins. I walked away from the amendment I originally proposed in order to get a coherent text on the basis that the Minister wanted her amendments to go through. The amendment I originally proposed tried to bring elements of flexibility into the determination and not to put a judge into a straitjacket or put everything into a binary yes-no, that this is the law, that...

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

Michael McDowell: I will not oppose this motion. I admire greatly the commitment of Senator Currie to the whole concept of remote working. To me, it is something that will obviously be part of our future to a greater extent than was ever envisaged. As Senator Currie stated, the process has been dynamised by the Covid-19 lockdowns as people are beginning to see it is possible to work remotely and to shift...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2021)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 7: In page 11, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following: “11. The Act of 2010 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 37: “Guidelines For Enhanced Due Diligence – Politically Exposed Persons 37A. (1) The Minister, where he or she considers it necessary or expedient, may, with the consent of the Minister for...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Second Stage (18 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I indicate my complete support for the campaign brought to public attention by Jackie Fox on the part of her daughter, Nicole. I commend Deputy Howlin and his colleagues in the Labour Party on introducing legislation to deal with this matter. What Senator Rónán Mullen has just said is true. We should not be in a position that we are pushing this through without adequate time to...

Seanad: Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I was speaking about the general background to the particular situation we find ourselves in now. This amendment and the other amendments in my name and the name of Senator Boyhan are to try to put firm dates on the process of transfer. I want to expand the point. The Minister of State recently visited Dundrum. She did not see the interior of the old building for various reasons. I went...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Second Stage (8 Dec 2020)

Michael McDowell: I agree completely with what Senator Buttimer has just said about FDI and Taiwan. In today's papers, I noticed that the Taiwanese foreign minister has asked for free countries across the world to show solidarity with them, which is so sad, because I visited the country recently and I saw a free democracy working perfectly. The minister said that there was an imminent threat of invasion from...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2020: Second Stage (18 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."It is important, perhaps, to note that on 1 February 2018 the then Taoiseach, now Tánaiste and Minister, Deputy Varadkar, came to this House and endorsed the principle of the Manning report and announced his intention to establish an all-party implementation group and spoke strongly in favour of the principle of amending the way Seanad...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (10 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister of State and thank Senator Cassells for his very generous encomium, which is not entirely deserved. I reiterate my thanks to him, along with Senators Warfield and Higgins, for their enthusiastic and totally committed support of the Seanad implementation group process. If we are talking about between 800,000 and 1 million people as part of this electorate for six seats...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (6 Nov 2020)

Michael McDowell: I wish to move an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 8 be taken before No. 1. This concerns the Children (Amendment) Bill 2020. On the issue of voting for business next Tuesday, I appreciate the problems we face with accommodation, votes and the like. I have tried to be constructive, as has my group, on all of these matters. Some people feel that in these Covid days, we must...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: The aim of invoking the workings of either the present commission or future commissions is immaterial as grounds for withholding information or not applying GDPR. In my view, GDPR qualifies and makes conditional both the National Archives Act, to some extent, and the 2004 Act because the provisions of those Acts have to be interpreted in a GDPR-compliant way, even though the GDPR makes...

Seanad: Health (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: Section 1 is the definition section of the Bill. One might expect that care would have been taken to provide proper definitions in section 1, rather than ignore a real problem with the Bill. I pointed out to the Minister that in the last Seanad we had a Bill that had left Dáil Éireann in a shambles and arrived up in the Seanad. It was called by a certain person a "dog's dinner"...

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: That was my understanding too. The database that is going to Tusla has nothing to do with an individual who, in response to the appeal by the commission, came forward to give the confidential committee information about their experiences. Is this going to be transferred to Tusla as a database? I take it that it is not considered a related record. I wanted to be 100% clear on that because...

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: ...consulted about section 6. I do not believe that. The Minister has not advanced the reasons this extension of time became necessary. I will leave it at that, but I do not think it is satisfactory that a justice provision dealing with the Judicial Council should be just added onto the back of a legislative train like an oil tanker being put behind a passenger train and suggesting it can...

Seanad: Ireland-China Relations: Motion (8 Oct 2020)

Michael McDowell: I second the motion put forward by Senator Mullen. I agree with everything he said. Earlier this year, I was privileged to be invited by the Government of Taipei to witness the elections in that country, which were conducted in January. I visited Taipei for the first time then, even though I have always supported the people of Taiwan in their desire to be free and to be free from communist...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Sep 2020)

Michael McDowell: I did not have an opportunity due to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges meeting to participate in the debate earlier today. I do not want to make a Second Stage speech, but I am concerned that this measure is, in fact, overly complex to deal with a reaction to the Berlin D2 bar incident in Dublin and is not as necessary as might be thought.It certainly is not as urgent as might be...