Results 121-140 of 18,797 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: When people criticise Seanad Éireann, they should reflect on the fact this House is a revising Chamber. It is a Chamber where we are tolerant and not abusive towards each other, not hostile to each other and where reflective debate and serious consideration of legislation takes place. It has on this occasion had very significant effects. The second thing I wanted to say is the fact...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: We now have syllabus texts and teacher training that goes down that road. I have a strong view that the Constitution provides for parents not merely the right but the duty to determine the moral formation and the social formation of their children. It is written into our Constitution that parents have that primary function. Activist people who want to project a different view have decided...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: I lost count but one does not have to go to those lengths to simply ask if the former Senator, Regina Doherty, is right that there are nine definitions, for starters, and would somebody kindly enumerate them for us so that we can see what we are actually putting into criminal statutes such as: the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act; the Criminal Damage Act; the Criminal Justice (Public...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister, although I will have a few words for him later. The 2013 proposal on the Seanad’s abolition was produced like a rabbit out of the hat at a Fine Gael president’s dinner as part of Enda Kenny’s defence of his leadership, which was then under challenge by Deputy Richard Bruton. The proposal took his own party by surprise and the arguments in favour...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: The Minister is throwing him under the bus now.

Seanad: Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: It is easy to do at this stage.

Seanad: Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (10 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: Yes.

Seanad: Family Courts Bill 2022: Committee Stage (2 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: I move amendment No. 1: In page 10, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following: “(3) The provisions of this Act relating to the Family District Court shall not come into operation unless a resolution approving the making of an order in that behalf under subsection (2) has been previously approved by each House of the Oireachtas.”. I welcome the Minister here...

Seanad: Family Courts Bill 2022: Committee Stage (2 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: I welcome the Minister's assurance that she sees that a policy of just shunting cases into the District Court is not appropriate, and her indication that she intends to bring amendments on the next Stage of this legislation to that effect and make sure it will not be used as an economic dumping ground for a great volume of court work. I fully take the point that if two people have decided...

Seanad: Family Courts Bill 2022: Committee Stage (2 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: On the construction of a major family law complex in Dublin, I do not know whether one will be sufficient. Half of the population lives in the greater Dublin area. However, even if it is built, my memory of the Criminal Courts of Justice at Parkgate Street is that is was done on a public-private partnership, PPP, basis. Although people in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery...

Seanad: Family Courts Bill 2022: Committee Stage (2 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: I am.

Seanad: Family Courts Bill 2022: Committee Stage (2 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: I support what Senator Ward has said.It seems to me that the jurisprudence of the Irish courts system depends on people being able to work out what is being decided in cases, the reasons that are being given and the policies that are being adopted in case law. If everything is shunted down a peg on the ladder, there will, as Senator Ward says, be fewer and fewer written decisions. On a...

Seanad: Family Courts Bill 2022: Committee Stage (2 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: Arising out of what the Minister has just stated, I point out that if one has a Circuit Court or District Court jurisdiction it is local in principle. Where I come from in Ranelagh in Dublin, there are lanes with very modest cottages on them. One can watch "Cheap Irish Homes" on television and there are some houses within 200 or 300 yards of where I live which, if they were anywhere else in...

Seanad: Family Courts Bill 2022: Committee Stage (2 Oct 2024)

Michael McDowell: On that point, I do not know how it works out. If there is going to be a property division order or a pension fund division order, is there a monetary limit on what the District Court can do or is it purely land that has these monetary values that we are dealing with?