‘It’s what you say in public that counts’

LABOUR Party justice spokesman Joe Costello last night refused to say whether he felt Justice Minister Michael McDowell should resign over the apparent security failures at Saturday’s Love Ulster parade.

It was reported over the weekend that Mr Costello had called on the minister to step down in the wake of the violence.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte told RTÉ he disagreed with Mr Costello’s position, in what was seen as a public dressing-down of his justice spokesman.

“I’m very reluctant to give succour to the people who premeditated the disgraceful scenes we saw [on Saturday] by criticising the minister,” Mr Rabbitte said.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Mr Rabbitte said Mr Costello was a TD for the constituency affected, and had been asked about the issue on Saturday at a point “when there was mayhem all around him”.

But the minister’s resignation “wasn’t the appropriate thing to call for”. In addition, the spokesman said, it was Mr Rabbitte who formally spoke for the party on issues relating to the North.

Yet, last night, Mr Costello said: “I put nothing in the public domain calling on the minister to resign,” he said.

The report suggesting he had done so was possibly “a misunderstanding with RTÉ”, he added.

When put to him that he may have suggested in a private conversation that the minister should resign, Mr Costello said: “I don’t think there’s any sense in getting into anything we say in private. It’s what you say in public and what you put on the record that counts.”

Asked if he felt now that the minister should step down, he answered: “That’s another day’s work. I’m not going to get into that now.”