Results 101-120 of 18,703 for speaker:Michael McDowell

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: No, no. I asked you a plain, simple question.

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: No, no. I am asking you a simple, plain question. If it is alright for a Minister to show a draft statutory instrument to an interested sectoral body, how is it wrong for him or her to show it to us in this 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: I appreciate 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 are two points to consider. There is the question of principle. If a Minister or a Department, before signing a document to make a regulation, can, or, in certain circumstances, is required to, consult a third party like An Taisce, that document cannot be the subject of such legal professional privilege that it cannot be shown to this committee. The Minister of State either accepts...

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: If we take An Taisce, which, as a prescribed body, has to be consulted on some issues-----

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 have asked a simple question of principle. I am being told it cannot be answered because the Minister of State has not looked at practical examples. In setting out the Attorney Genera's advice, she stated the following: Unless and until a Minister makes the regulation, every iteration of the draft regulation, stamped or unstamped, is subject to legal professional privilege and cannot be...

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: However, in the meantime, we will see nothing until it is law.

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: We are talking about similar-----

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 know that, but Senator Ward is no more important than Senator O’Reilly, me or any other Senator.

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: This is a Seanad committee and we are entitled to deal with our business without regard to what is happening in the Seanad chamber.

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: First of all-----

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: Let me put the Minister of State’s mind to rest. I have no doubt that she is trying to do her best on this. I have no doubt about her good faith or have ever implied the opposite.

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 deeply concerned about what I am reading because it reflects the Attorney General’s view of this matter. That is what I am worried about. The Minister of State said a number of times that all directives were the outcome of a legislative process. That is true up to a point, in that they are considered by the European Parliament, but many directives give to member states...

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: No, let me finish. The member state has the primary duty to legislate on foot of directives. This is primary legislation, done by statutory instrument. It is law and I just want to emphasise that to the Minister of State.

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 is one other thing. We do not intend to take part in the legislative process. Our function is extremely limited. It is to look at a draft statutory instrument and to say that this is of sufficient importance. This is all we can do. We can look at it and say that the sectoral committee should be warned in advance that something is coming down the track. That committee should ask...

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: Exactly, I am making every allowance for that.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I wish to mention two issues. Yesterday, I was chastened for not apparently understanding what section 58 actually provides for in the powers it gives councillors to propose variations of development plans. The point I was making - and a number of people contacted me to ask me to make this point - is that when one looks to sections 61 and 62, the OPR does have a very significant effective...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I know there are important bits in this Bill. I am referring to the whole Bill. I said yesterday, in the Minister's absence, that if those changes had been made separately, consolidation could have taken place on a different day but we are being asked to take a huge bundle of things together and some things we have to agree with and some we do not want to agree with. That is what I find...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (17 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: This legislation is being rushed through. It is wrong in principle to bring a Bill to Dáil Éireann to deal with adding new judges, tinkering with the firearms Act and so on and to then throw into it an entirely new provision on the revocation of citizenship. It is wrong in principle to attempt to do that. Whatever urgency there is in dealing with the Damache case, that urgency...