Results 81-100 of 18,703 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: I feel passionate about this.
- Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: The reason I feel passionate is I have been given answers as to why these amendments should not be accepted, which are that local authorities proved incapable of operating a system. Local authorities were never given the function of operating the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956. They were never given that function. It was members of the Garda who were to police the Act. They were given-----
- Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: I accept that I strayed. Local authorities were never given the function under the Gaming and Lotteries Act of policing this. They could not send down some lad from the council head office to say there is something wrong here. The only people who were given a function to police this were the police. To lay blame at the feet of local authorities is wrong. The only function local...
- Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: I want to mention the NUI graduates-----
- Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: The amendment deals with in-person gambling. That is different from what the Minister of State is now talking about, which is online gambling. This amendment is solely concerned with in-person gambling. He should get into his car, take a little drive around Dublin and look at how many of these places there are. They are mushrooming around the city. I fully accept that the Flutters of...
- Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 2: In page 14, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (2), the repeal of Part III of the Act of 1956 shall not take effect until Part 4 is brought into operation.”
- Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: I support the two amendments that were discussed. They are sensible. Nowadays there are very elaborate activities whereby a person is asked to answer some stupid question, which then turns into a lottery. RTÉ does a lot of it. That must be dealt with. It is a lottery, and gaining access to a lottery by answering a moronic question correctly does not change it from being a lottery....
- Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: Not agreed.
- Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Report Stage (24 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: I intend moving amendment No. 70 in my name which is to remove a reference. I want to say a few words about this Bill. I fully recognise that the former Attorney General, Mr. Paul Gallagher SC, embarked on a massive task in seeking to consolidate planning law and to update it in the manner that this Bill provides. It was a project which he took personal interest in. It is impressive in...
- Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Report Stage (24 Sep 2024)
Michael McDowell: There are experts running around Dún Laoghaire trying to find bats and putting up microphones to see if they can hear bats in any part of Dún Laoghaire in order to object to planning applications and to foot-trip the planning process. There are people who have made money out of objections to planning developments in which they have no real legitimate interest. I accept that all of...
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister of State and her officials. I will deal with the easy point first. The Minister of State said she chaired a meeting last week of the interdepartmental committee on EU engagement. Of 46 cases, 15 are awaiting closure. That means 31 of those cases are not awaiting closure. In respect of those, there seems to be no reason why we should not be briefed on each of them...
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: On that front, I ask about a briefing on all of them but particularly we would be interested in the cases against Ireland that are not yet awaiting closure and are still effectively open, and the financial implications. Are fines being imposed? Are they being threatened? Where are we on that kind of issue? I think we are entitled to a table setting that out. The second point is that,...
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: There would be very little to be learned from that. However, at least it would be clear, if that approach is being taken, how the Department proposes to address the issue. The second thing is that if we simply say – this is the point – that the initial draft instructions for the regulations are all that this committee should see, first, are we to be told that a later...
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: That is bizarre. If that is the position the Office of the Attorney General wants us to accept, we might as well wind up the committee.
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: Sorry, can I just say-----
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: I am not saying that we have to see all the correspondence or that the OPC said this is lawful, unlawful or disproportionate. I am not asking for any of that information. I am simply saying, and I ask the Minister of State to deal with this issue, that if it is lawful for a Minister-----
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: -----to deal with a third-party institution-----
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: Sorry, I thought the Minister of State was finished.
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: That depends. I will give an example. If the OPC or the Attorney General's office said that the proposed fine in regulation 3 was grossly excessive or, on the other hand, was not sufficiently punitive to comply with the requirement of dissuasive penalties under EU law, I would have no problem with the dialogue between them being a matter of privilege. If, in the end, the Department says...
- Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)
Michael McDowell: With respect, you are not dealing with the third question.