John Downing

speaker

506 appearances 6 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 10 Sep

John Downing’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 6 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 2.

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He finally made the first team, as you say, about 18 months ago.

And he has, I think, shown himself as Minister for Justice to be a steady hand at the tiller.

Now, we'll come on to this latest controversy, but he has shown himself to take a more firm control of immigration and asylum.

There have been deportations.

They have been actioned.

Contentious, but surely also it must be part of any kind of an asylum and immigration process.

I think that has reassured Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators.

This was seen, his predecessor was seen as, Helen McEntee of Fianna Gael, was seen as very weak in that sector.

So I think he has shown himself to be steady and to be reassuring on what has periodically been a very explosive issue.

We've heard very little about it in the 18 months he has been in the chair.

Well, it may be, though it is a high wire act.

And you are right.

There is precedent here.

Alan Shatter of Fianna Ghael, a very accomplished solicitor, was Minister for Justice and did have these brushes with the legal profession.

Let's recall from 2010 until 2013, we had the troika.

the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission, supervising the running of the Irish economy.

Repeated progress reports cited good work being done and also drew attention to the lack of action.

in putting controls on the legal profession.

That went all the way through.

And there was very little change.

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