Independent Senator and former Attorney General, Michael McDowell, launched a scathing attack on what he said were the Department of Justice’s efforts to block his amendment requiring Gardaí to record the ethnicity, race, nationality or status of individuals subjected to stop-and-search powers.
Senator McDowell accused the Department of Justice of seeking to rule out his proposed amendment in “utmost bad faith” during the recent Seanad Committee Stage debate of the Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026 – adding that the exclusion of his amendment was “completely indefensible”.